All Grown Up Now
by Armbar Nation
Summary: Story 2 of 4 and sequel to The Miami Screwjob. A new job title and more responsibility are the least of the problems for Stephanie McMahon.
1. Two Surprises

"You know I don't like surprises Paul," Stephanie McMahon whined, "Just tell me. A husband shouldn't keep things from his wife."

Her husband Paul Levesque smiled back, "No. Your dad will tell you when we get in there."

"I'll remember you for this," Stephanie's threat was accompanied by a smile.

Paul figured she would not be smiling in a few minutes. He had told Vince that it was bad idea to tell Stephanie what he was going to tell her today. Paul knew how she was going to react.

"I told you Steph, there's news you will like and news that you won't." They walked down the hallway on the top floor of WWE headquarters towards Vince McMahon's office, "What news could my dad possibly have that I'm not going to like?"

Paul said nothing in response to that. He would rather not even be in the meeting but he knew things might be worse if he wasn't.

Stephanie walked into Vince's office without knocking on the door and Paul followed. "Hi dad," She greeted cheerfully.

"Hello Steph, Paul. Have a seat, there's coffee on the table if you want it."

They sat in the chairs placed in front of his desk. "I don't want coffee dad, I've been hyped all morning waiting for this. You know how I hate surprises."

Vince laughed, "Well then let's begin. Firstly as you have been nagging me constantly for the last couple of months about taking things a bit easier and giving you more responsibility I have come to the conclusion that you may be right."

Stephanie interrupted, "I won't let you down..."

"Steph be quiet please. You can speak in a moment. As you know when your mom left WWE a few years ago her title of CEO was transferred to me. I am now going to transfer it to you. I will remain as Chairman but you will be the new CEO."

Stephanie began to get up to go and hug her dad, "Daddy I don't know..."

Vince held up a hand to stop her, "I know you're excited but can we please get through this? There's more to discuss and then we can talk afterwards." He guessed that probably wasn't going to happen.

"Okay sorry dad, please carry on. I won't interrupt again"

"Right, as I was saying you will now be CEO of WWE. You will now have a place on the board of directors and you will get a salary increase from your current seven hundred thousand up to a million dollars a year. Your salary of three hundred thousand as on screen talent will remain unchanged. I will no longer be travelling twice a week for Raw and Smackdown. I may attend some pay-per-view events but only as and when I decide. I will be in charge of things here at HQ and you will be in charge of everything related to the live events. You will obviously still have the heads of production and creative and all of those guys under you as I have had but now the overall responsibility is yours Stephanie, if you accept it."

Stephanie beamed, "If I accept it? Dad it's an honour. Thank you so much for this, you will not regret it. We'll get back on top again and we'll crush TNA!"

Paul smiled at his wife, glad to see her so happy, "Congratulations honey, you deserve it." It was a shame the happiness was going to be so brief.

"Thank you. Thank you both."

Vince shifted nervously in his chair, "We also have a second matter to discuss."

Stephanie had completely forgotten that she had been told that she would not like the second half of the meeting and she was still smiling, "Sure dad, what is it?"

Vince took in a deep breath and let it out. He had been dreading this moment all day. "I have decided that you will have a second in command. You will teach this person every aspect of the production side of the business as you work and make sure they are ready to step into your shoes if you are unable to attend a show for any reason. Basically you'll be a mentor."

Stephanie nodded and the smile still remained, "Sure, I can do that. No problem. Who will I be working with?" Paul's grimace as he braced himself went unnoticed.

"You'll be working with Nikki Bella."

Silence descended on the office and the smile faded from Stephanie's face, "Sorry, what?"

"You heard me Stephanie."

Stephanie laughed, hoping this was a joke of some kind that she was not getting, "Good one dad, you got me. There's no conceivable reason that Nikki would need to do my job. Ever. So you're not going to fool me with that."

"I'm not fooling you or ribbing you or whatever else you want to call it."

Stephanie's eyes narrowed a little, "Wait, you're actually serious? For what possible reason?"

Vince shifted nervously again in his chair, "Firstly I think that if you actually give Nikki a chance and mentor her properly she may have an aptitude for this kind of work and secondly I wanted someone to keep a close eye on you after your uh... health issues who could report to me personally and in confidence."

Stephanie shook her head as if that would make this information easier to process, "Dad I don't know what you're thinking here, why can't Paul 'keep a close eye on me' or whatever you said?"

"Paul has been assigned other duties, he won't be travelling as often as you are. He will appear most weeks on Raw but he won't be on Smackdown unless it's for exceptional reasons. We talked about it yesterday and we agreed it's not fair on the girls for both parents to be away two nights each week, plus Shane has hinted a few times that it's a struggle for Marissa with six kids two nights a week and we know you won't get a nanny."

Stephanie had only just taken in something from the previous part of the conversation, "Wait a minute. What do you mean 'report to me personally and in confidence'? What the hell does that mean?"

Paul closed his eyes.

"Stephanie me and Nikki are in uh... a relationship."

Paul saw his wife's mouth drop open slightly and her eyes glazed over. He had seen that look before. Silently he counted down, meltdown in three, two, one.


	2. Meltdown

"No you didn't!" Stephanie exploded as she leapt out of the chair. She stormed over to the opposite end of the office and back again as if she did not know what to in order to vent the anger that was boiling inside of her. "No you didn't just say that to me!"

Vince stood up, "Stephanie sit down please."

Her face had gone bright red and she carried on screaming, "Sit down? That's what you've got to say to me? Sit down? You fucking sit down!"

Vince had never been spoken to like that by his daughter before. He raised his own voice now, "Do not speak to me like that Stephanie. Ever. Sit down, now!"

Stephanie did not back down, she leaned over the desk, nose to nose with her dad and the veins stuck out in her neck as she carried on raging, "Mom hasn't been dead for six months and you're... you're... in a relationship? With that... that..." She couldn't think of an insult bad enough for the purpose." You make me sick. I am actually going to be sick."

Paul stood up now and wrestled his wife back into her chair as gently as he could, "Stop screaming Steph, for god's sake calm down."

Stephanie's face was still red and she was short of breath and shaking, "I'll kill her. I'll fucking kill her."

Vince sat and decided to make an attempt to calm his daughter, "Steph do you think your mom wanted me to be alone forever?" The question wasn't well thought out and predictably had the opposite effect to that which he had intended as she growled at him, "No dad, I'm sure her last living thought was I hope in six months time my husband is fucking someone ten years younger than my daughter!"

The shock at the way his daughter was talking to him meant that Vince did not think his next response through either, "She's seven years younger than you."

Stephanie leapt out of her chair again, "Oh, right! Well then I'm fine with it! My dad is in a relationship with someone seven years younger than me! Isn't that fucking perfect?"

"Stephanie that's enough now! Calm down!"

Stephanie was storming towards the door, "Calm down? I'll calm down!" She slammed the door shut behind her so hard that the pictures rattled on the wall.

"Well done Vince, I told you that would happen," Paul sighed with his head resting in one hand.

Vince was still shocked by the intensity of his daughters explosion, "I knew she would be angry but my god. I've never seen her like that."

Paul rubbed his forehead with his fingers, "You know she's not going to work with Nikki. I mean, you do know that, right?"

"Oh, she is. If she wants this job she is. Nikki and I are together and we love each other so Steph will have to get used to the idea. It's that simple."

Paul rose from his chair and headed for the door to try to find and pacify his wife, "Good luck with that." It was not hard to figure out where his Stephanie was as soon as he was through the door because he heard the sound of something smashing from the direction of her office. He also noticed that there was nobody else around. He figured that they had realised that attracting her attention right now would be a bad idea.

He put his head around the doorway of his wife's office. He noticed paperwork all over the floor which he imagined had been piled on the desk a short time before and what he presumed had been a cup in pieces in one corner where it had just been thrown, "Do I need a white flag?"

Stephanie was standing behind her desk and leaning on it with both hands as if she did not trust her legs to hold her upright and she was still hyperventilating. When she looked up at him her eyes burned into his, "Don't come near me Paul, don't you fucking dare. You knew this and you didn't tell me."

Paul was worried about her now. This was way out of hand and he needed her to calm down, "It wasn't my place to tell you Steph, and in any case your dad made me promise not to."

"So you've got more loyalty to my dad than you have to me? That's where we're at with this?"

Paul walked towards her, still trying to remain calm although it was tough after that accusation, "How can you say that? After these last few months you can say that to me?"

Stephanie closed her eyes tightly for few seconds, "No Paul. I'm sorry."

He hugged her and she began to cry, "How could he? I mean so soon after mom? And with that little slut? I'm going to be sick."

"It's not your decision honey, it's your dad's."

Stephanie wriggled her free from Paul's hug and stormed towards the door, wiping her eyes as she did so, "Yeah but I don't have to like it."

"Where are you going now?" Paul sighed as he headed after her.


	3. Your Mom's Dead!

Paul saw Stephanie turn to the right as she left her office therefore he knew that she was going back for another piece of Vince. He hurried after her and had nearly caught up to her as she crashed through the door into Vince's office and immediately exploded at him again, "If you think I'm working with that little slut you can think again! What the hell are you thinking?"

Vince yelled louder than Paul had ever heard him yell before which was remarkable, "Stephanie! Shut up!"

It must have shocked her because she had actually frozen. Paul decided to take this opportunity to get a word in edgewise, "Steph please stop screaming okay? You'll have a stroke or something. Just sit down and we can talk like adults."

Stephanie was obviously still boiling but she did sit down. Paul took his seat and finally so did Vince as she spoke quietly, "You're in a relationship with Nikki Bella?" Although she spoke quietly she was obviously still just as angry as before.

Vince tried to calm the situation by informing her, "We love each other." He failed and Stephanie was up again, "Way wrong answer!" She was about to storm out again but Paul had grabbed her arm. He also shouted now, "Stop this for Christ's sake!"

At the sound of her husband finally losing his cool Stephanie in turn finally seemed to make some attempt to calm down. She took several deep breaths and then sat back down.

"My god, what's wrong with this family?" Nobody answered Paul's question and a heavy silence descended on the office. Eventually Vince spoke, trying to sound calm, "We've all had a minute to cool off so can we talk without screaming or standing up?"

Stephanie looked at the floor and did not respond.

"Steph say something. Please?"

She did not look up but she sounded hurt now instead of angry, "How could you? I mean seriously, Nikki Bella?"

Vince felt his anger rising again but he still managed to speak calmly, "There we go, it's not that I'm in a relationship with someone is it? It's that it's Nikki."

Stephanie looked up now, staring coldly at her dad, "It's both of those things. I'll tell you now and you had better believe me. That bitch is never coming in my house and she's never touching my kids."

"Steph I'm not going to leave Nikki to suit you, so get that idea out of your head. If you come to my house then Nikki will be there. At least she will be soon when she moves in."

"Then we won't come," Stephanie insisted like a stubborn child.

Vince ignored that comment, "Also you will be working with Nikki when you start your new job Monday night."

Stephanie was about to say that in that case she quit but then she finally managed to gain some semblance of control, "Why? You know I will be miserable, you know she will be miserable, so why?"

"Nikki will only be miserable if you make her miserable. You will only be miserable if you make yourself miserable. Nikki doesn't have a problem with you, she told me that and I believe her. Like it or not Steph, we make each other happy."

"Not," was her simple, sulky reply.

Vince sighed and leaned back in his chair, "So that's it then? You won't make any effort to see this from anyone else's point of view apart from your own?"

"I can see it from my mom's point of view," Stephanie growled.

Vince decided his only option was to shock some sense into his daughter so he yelled at her, "Your mom's dead!"

Stephanie looked down and said nothing. After a moment Vince continued but now gently, "She's dead baby and we all miss her and we always will, especially me but do you want to talk about what she would have wanted? You think this is it? This is what she wanted, me and you at each other's throats and all of us being miserable?"

Stephanie managed to mumble, "No."

"Steph it will work out. You'll get to know her personally as you're working with her and..."

Stephanie got up one more but not explosively this time, "Don't dad, not now. I'm going home. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

Yet again Paul found himself trailing his wife out of an office, wondering why it surprised him that he was going to end up being the one trying to pick up the pieces of this mess. That seemed to be his role now.


	4. Admitting Defeat

Stephanie was already back in her office by the time Paul got there. As he walked in she had just snatched her suit jacket from the back of her chair and started to put it on. Paul closed the door behind him, "Steph sit down please."

She finished putting her jacket on and made sure it was straight. "No Paul, I'm out of here."

"No, you're not. You're going to sit down and you're going to listen. I've listened to you screaming and shouting for the last fifteen minutes, your dad too. Someone's going to listen to me for once."

Stephanie was a little surprised by this so she did as she was told, "Fine. I'm listening."

Paul sat himself on the edge of the desk, facing her, "You can't blow up like that Steph. It doesn't matter what the news is or what has gone wrong you are way out of line screaming at people like that, especially your dad."

"But..."

"No. I said listen, not talk. You're stressing yourself, you're stressing me and if we're both stressed it's going to rub off onto the girls too and that's not fair. If you can't handle things better than this then you can't take on this promotion and you should probably go back to your doctor too."

Stephanie had finally calmed down enough to sit and talk sensibly, "I'm sorry Paul. I just can't believe it. My dad and Nikki. I mean why? And how?"

Paul took her hand, "Maybe you should have asked your dad instead of trying to scream loud enough to blast the windows out of his office."

"I was pretty wild, huh?"

He decided to try and lighten the mood, "You're always wild baby, that's something I love about you."

Stephanie managed a small smile, "How much do you love it?"

"Maybe I'll show you tonight and we can see if we can work some of that stress out of you."

She stood up and kissed him, "I'll hold you to that promise."

"I didn't promise anything, I said maybe."

Stephanie sat across his lap and played with his tie and tried to sound mischievous, "Maybe huh? Maybe I can just fire your ass, I'm the CEO now honey."

Paul laughed, "You don't have the balls."

She couldn't help a giggle, "No I don't."

They shared a passionate kiss which felt amazing to both of them then Paul lifted her back to her feet, "Go speak to your dad Steph, don't leave him feeling like that all day."

She sighed, "I suppose you're right."

Paul stood and followed his wife out of the office, "Do you want me to come back in with you?"

"No thank you, I'm under control now." Paul kissed her and walked away, hoping that her last statement was true.

Stephanie closed her eyes for a few seconds to try to clear her mind and then went back into her dad's office. This time she closed the door quietly behind her, "Dad," was all she could manage.

Vince stood and walked around his desk and they hugged, "I'm sorry dad I just, I couldn't help it."

He motioned for her to sit and sat down behind the desk again, "Steph you worry me. If you're going to take this job you cannot react to things like that. You have to be able to stay at least somewhere near to calm."

She sighed, "This isn't a work issue dad you know that. I can handle pressure at work. Finding out about you and Nikki is something else entirely."

"That's fair enough but I meant what I said, you will be working with Nikki. Not only that but you will treat her the same as you would anyone else who works under you. If you don't Steph, well just do it, okay? For me?

Stephanie sighed again as she admitted defeat, "You got it dad. For you I will do it."

"You can get to know her, things can work out between all of us."

"I'm not going to promise you that dad." He nodded as Stephanie continued, "I want to know how you and her, how you, why are you in a relationship? I mean she was with John Cena."

Vince leant back in his chair, "It's a long story Steph which I will tell you some other time but basically she came to me when you tried to force her out of the company. I told her I had to appear to take your side due to your problems with John so she would have to leave but I continued to pay her. She was very grateful and we started talking some more and I was having a hard time with everything that was going on with you and she was just, she was there for me and one thing led to another."

Stephanie closed her eyes as she realised that if she had not tried to force Nikki out of WWE just to spite John Cena then this would not be happening. She mumbled under her breath, "Perfect Steph, that's just fucking perfect."

"What's that princess?"

"Nothing dad."


	5. You Can Do It

Paul heard his wife enter the house and close the front door but by the time he could get there she was already buried underneath three girls. He stood and watched her smiling and trying to respond to their frantic babbling and questions and he thought about how lucky he was to have such a happy family.

He scooped his youngest daughter Vaughn up into his arms and said to Murphy and Aurora, "Come on girls, how about you leave some of mommy for your dad? Let's go put some cartoons on the TV."

Aurora walked in front of him, "We want some food dad."

Paul heard Stephanie speak from behind him, "Sorry? What was that?"

"Can we have some food please?"

"That's better. Take your sisters to watch TV and daddy and I will make something for you." She gestured with her head for Paul to come into the kitchen with her.

Paul set Vaughn down onto one of the couches and watched as Aurora turned on the TV and sat next to her little sister.

"Paul?"

"I'm coming" he said and left the room. He walked into the kitchen and kissed Stephanie, "You're late?"

Stephanie took off her suit jacket and dropped it over the back of a chair, "I was talking with my dad and we kind of didn't notice the time."

"Well that's good, you obviously didn't kill each other."

She sat down and shook her head, "Someone up there hates me."

"What?"

"I said someone up there hates me. My dad basically told me that he and Nikki Bella are together as a direct result of me making her quit her job. I mean good one, right? Someone up there is laughing at me."

Paul walked over and stood behind his wife and began to massage her shoulders. "Well, you shouldn't be so mean to people," he teased.

Stephanie moaned in pleasure as he worked on the tension in her muscles, "You think I'm mean?"

"I think you can be vicious."

She moaned with pleasure again at how good his massage felt, "You'd like that wouldn't you?"

"Very much. I bought wine on the way home, so let's get the kids to bed early and..."

Stephanie purred, "I'll be as vicious as you like."

Paul felt himself getting hard at the prospect. There were too few occasions lately to have a night like this in their lives and it would be even more difficult now that Stephanie had taken her new job. He would make sure that they both enjoyed it.

* * *

It was one of the best sexual experiences he could remember as they both lay there trying to regain their breath. Stephanie panted, "Did I hurt you baby?"

"I'm not complaining," he assured her, feeling the pain from the line of fingernail scratches down his back.

"I'm sorry Paul."

"I said I wasn't complaining."

"Not for that, for everything."

He rolled onto his side so that he could look at her, "What are you talking about now?"

"Everything, these last few months. I don't know how you did it."

He put his arm around her, "I love you Steph, I'll always be here for you."

"I don't deserve you after what I did."

He kissed her, "Don't say that, we both know that you weren't in a good place."

"But I'm still a bitch even now, look at today, how I spoke to my dad. My god."

Paul was not sure what to say to that so there was a pause before he managed, "Steph, there's only one person who can stop things like that happening."

"I know. Me."

Paul desperately wanted to help her so he tried his best to think of the perfect thing to say, "You can do it Steph, you can. You can do it for me and the girls. You can start Monday night, when you see Nikki Bella you can try not to intimidate her or make her feel bad. You can be kind to that woman and you can work with her. You can teach her to do the job your dad wants her to do and when she makes a mistake or when she does something that makes you angry you can suck up all of that rage inside of you and you can not explode at her, you can help her. You could be the best business woman in the country if you could do that. Can you do that for me?"

Stephanie had closed her eyes and the reply was full of sadness, "I wish I could."


	6. Making An Effort

"You're sure about this?" Paul asked Stephanie. It was Monday night and they were about to leave their hotel to head to the arena for Raw.

Stephanie finished putting on her grey suit jacket, "Yes, I'm sure. I need to get used to it as you won't be there Thursday night anyway. When we get to the arena we go our separate ways. You have your job to do and I have mine, and I have to speak to Nikki Bella first of all."

Paul brushed a stray hair from her cheek and kissed her, "Well if you have any problems you come and find me okay? This isn't going to be easy for you."

"Thank you honey but I can handle this and in any case I've signed the contract now so I have to do it. How did I look?"

Paul smiled, "Ready."

Stephanie pouted, "That's all?"

"And beautiful too, I guess."

She playfully slapped his chest, "You guess?"

He put an arm around her and they headed for the door, "Come on, we'll be late."

* * *

Brie Bella was concerned for her sister. She looked at her as she sat on a steel chair nervously wringing her hands together and fiddling with her black suit jacket, "Nikki please try and calm down, you'll be fine okay?"

Nikki looked up at her sister, "Fine? I've been dreading this for days. Stephanie hates me."

Brie could not really argue with that, "Well, you told me what Vince said, Stephanie promised him that she would treat you the same as every other person that works under her."

Nikki snorted, "That's what worries me, she's a bitch to everyone most of the time. I might just quit before she gets here."

"Nikki don't be stupid okay? It's not going to be that bad."

Nikki got up and stood in front of her sister, "Look at this suit Brie, it doesn't look good on me. It's not the kind of thing I wear. I'm going to look stupid next to Stephanie."

Brie laughed, "It will certainly take some getting used to seeing you dressed like that but you look fine. Stop panicking about things when you don't need to. You know that won't do you any good. Are you sure you want to go and wait in the parking garage? Isn't that a little, I don't know, strange?"

"No. It's obvious that when Stephanie walks in here it's going to be 'Where's Nikki? Why isn't Nikki here waiting for me? She should be here when I arrive.'"

Brie laughed at Nikki's impersonation of Stephanie, "Don't let her hear you doing that for god's sake! She could sneak up on you at any moment!"

Nikki laughed nervously, "That would just be my luck, she seems to have a talent for things like that. I'd be fired before I start."

Brie led the way to the door, "You should go then, they'll be here soon. Good luck." Nikki figured that she would need it.

* * *

As the limo pulled into the parking garage Paul said, "Okay Steph, remember what I said the other night. Try your best with Nikki, please?"

"I promise I will try."

"And you're sure you want me to stay out of the way?"

Stephanie kissed him softly on the cheek, "I know where you are if I need you."

"Okay, good luck." He climbed out of the limo and saw Nikki standing at the entrance to the arena. Without waiting for his wife he walked towards her. He could tell that she was very nervous so as he walked past her he whispered, "You'll be fine."

Nikki took a deep breath as Stephanie climbed out of the limo and forcefully closed the door. She dreaded what was going to happen next more than anything she could remember. She reminded herself to sound as polite as possible.

"Hello Nikki." Nikki noticed that the greeting was not warm but it certainly was not as cold as she had expected. She replied, "Hi Stephanie, I'd just like to..." but Stephanie had walked past her and into the building.

Nikki hurried after her, "Stephanie can I just..."

"Where's my office?"

Nikki managed to catch up with her, "It's the last door on the left at the end of this..."

"You know how to make good coffee?"

"What? I mean yes."

"A flat white then, no sugar. I'll see you in there."

Nikki was tempted to say that she was not here to make coffee but she knew that would be a bad idea so she headed off to do as she had been told. When she returned to Stephanie's office five minutes later with the drink she handed it to her and watched Stephanie look at it. After a second Stephanie said, "Thank you. Why didn't you get one for yourself?"

Nikki had not even thought to do so, "I uh... I'm fine."

Stephanie sat on the couch, "This is how my dad liked his office. It's my office now and in future I want a desk and a suitable chair. I can't work on my laptop without a desk, it's not comfortable."

Nikki did not know why this was her responsibility but realised that the only option she had was to say, "I'll uh... speak to someone and get them on that." It was vitally important to get off to a good start, she needed this job.

Stephanie gestured at a steel chair that was leaning in the corner of the room, "Get a chair Nikki, we need to talk."

Nikki again did as she had been told, wondering why it would have been so hard to invite her to sit on the couch. As she sat down Stephanie stared at her, "I don't like you Nikki..."

"Stephanie please don't..."

"I'm speaking. I don't like you and you don't like me. With that said I told my dad I would make an effort to work with you and I meant it. You do as I ask, when I ask and we'll get along. If you have any questions about what you need to do then feel free to ask me."

Nikki blinked a couple of times as she tried to take in this unexpected news, "Uh... okay Stephanie, thank you. So, what do we do now? I mean we must have loads of things to do, right?"

Stephanie nodded, "First I drink this coffee, then we figure out how we're going to turn this company around from the disaster zone that it currently is."


	7. Creative Differences

"Here are the documents you asked for Stephanie," Nikki Bella said as she crashed through the office door with her hands full of papers. She handed them over, "Here are last week's TV ratings and here is what's been booked for tonight."

Stephanie took them and began to read, leaving Nikki standing there awkwardly. Nikki noticed that Stephanie's face became angrier the more she read. She flicked through the schedule for the Raw show that was soon to begin. She stopped on a particular page and seemed to read it more than once.

She suddenly tore the page out of the stapled document it had been in and held it out to Nikki, "Find out who wrote that and tell them to get rid of it. Damien Sandow and Fandango for the Intercontinental title? Someone must be on stronger drugs than I am."

Nikki's eyebrows raised at that, "Wait, what?"

Stephanie realised what she had said and couldn't help a laugh, "Not like that Nikki, I'm on meds to help with what happened with John."

Nikki studied Stephanie carefully, "Oh right, uh... I'm sorry to hear that."

"Find out who wrote that crap and get it changed. I want that title putting on Dolph Ziggler tonight."

"Sure, no problem." Nikki hurried back out of the office.

As the door closed Stephanie sighed. She was really trying to be as civil as she could to Nikki but the thought of Nikki and her dad just would not go out of her mind. "Give her a break, she's really trying," she told herself.

Stephanie tried to relax but she couldn't help herself picking up the TV ratings sheet from the previous week. Things were worse than she had thought. She screwed up the sheet of paper and dropped it on the floor. Things would soon change now.

She opened her laptop and started to reply to some emails, irritated that there was no desk to work at. Suddenly she realised that Nikki had been gone for at least ten minutes. What was taking her so long to do such a simple job? She got up and went to find out.

As she walked down the hallway she asked some nameless crew member, "Where's the creative office?"

"You just walked past it Mrs. McMahon, just behind you there."

Stephanie turned around and opened the door that the man had indicated and walked in. As she did so she saw Nikki standing next to three men at the far side of the room. Two of them were sitting and working on laptops while the other was standing next to Nikki. They were clearly arguing.

As she walked across the room Stephanie felt the eyes of the people she walked past following her. She sensed nervousness and it pleased her. Upon approaching the discussion or argument, whatever it was, she heard the man who was standing next to Nikki saying, "There's three week's work into that Sandow – Fandango rivalry, I keep telling you. We can't just can it."

Nikki was floundering, "I'm only telling you what I've been told..."

"What's going on here?" Stephanie demanded icily.

The man spun around and she noticed the two men sitting down tense up, "Uh... Stephanie. Nikki is trying to tell me to change this match but we can't just do that."

Stephanie stared into his eyes, "Let me make something clear to you. When Nikki Bella is not in my presence she speaks with my authority. Is that clear?"

"But..."

Stephanie's voice grew even colder, "Is that clear?"

The man could not hold her gaze, he turned back to the guys working on the laptops, "Yes that's clear but we can't just throw away a rivalry like that. We've put build up work into it."

Nikki thought that Stephanie sounded so calm that it was threatening. She wondered how Stephanie managed to be so intimidating. She would definitely need to ask. Stephanie ordered, "Lose the match. Now!"

The man still had his back to Stephanie, "It's not a good idea to change things at the last minute like this."

Stephanie exploded, causing everyone in the room to go silent and look in the direction of the screaming woman, "I'm the CEO of this company! I've made my decision, now shut the fuck up!"

The man turned back to face her but could not think of anything to say in the face of such anger. He looked to Nikki as though he was too shocked. Stephanie barged past him and stood next to one of the guys who was now frantically trying to look busy on his laptop. She pointed at the screen, "Lose the match, or lose your job."

The man nodded his compliance and with that Stephanie turned and marched out of the office with Nikki hurrying after her. As she caught up to her new boss in the corridor she could not help laughing, "Stephanie, how do you do that? I mean I could never speak to someone like that. You're just so, I don't know. How do you do that?"

Stephanie smiled at her newest employee for the first time that night, possibly ever, "I'll teach you."


	8. This I Swear

"It's really quite simple Nikki. Look at it this way, next time you walk into a room with those guys and you tell one of them to do something do you think he's going to argue with you?"

Nikki laughed as they walked back into Stephanie's office, "After that? No way!"

Stephanie smiled as she sat on the couch, "Exactly, that's leadership. If I tell someone to do something they need to know that their only option is to do it."

Nikki said nervously, "But sometimes those guys could have a valid opinion on something that's different to ours, yours I mean."

Stephanie nodded, "You're right and if it's an opinion I want I'll ask for it. I don't need an opinion on a match between Sandow and Fandango. It's that sort of crap has our ratings in the toilet."

Nikki decided to take a small risk whilst things seemed to be going well and sat down on the couch next to Stephanie. As she got no objection she continued, "I want to uh... thank you for what you said in there."

Stephanie raised an eyebrow slightly, "Thank me? For what?"

"You said that when you're not in the room I speak with your authority. That meant something to me."

Stephanie gave a little shrug, "It's true, if I send you to tell someone to do something then they will treat you the same way as they would me if I asked directly."

Nikki laughed again, "The way you yelled at that guy, Christ almighty I thought he was going to shit."

She realised what she had said and expected to be yelled at for swearing but instead Stephanie allowed a small smile, "It's all about the way people perceive you Nikki. You walk in and they think 'Hey, here's Nikki Bella,' but when I walk in they think 'Oh shit, it's the boss,' You'll need to work on that."

Nikki shook her head, "I just don't see myself ever being able to tear into someone like that. I'm just not, you're just more intimidating than I am."

"Some people would tell you that there are other ways to lead people, but this works for me. It works for my dad too. It's the only way I know so if I'm going to teach you then this is what you're going to learn."

Nikki hastily said, "I wasn't trying to say you were wrong, I just don't see myself doing it."

"You're a lot shorter than me, which won't help you, a tall woman seems to intimidate guys for some reason but the main thing you need to do is change the way you speak to people. If you're giving an order then make sure it sounds like one, not a request."

Before they could talk any further there was a knock and the door opened. Paul walked in, "Sorry honey, I know you said not to disturb but I had to bring you this." He pulled a rose from behind his back and handed it to her, "I'm so proud of you and I love you."

Stephanie blushed and stood up to hug him, "That's the sweetest thing, thank you so much."

"My pleasure, how are things going?" His question was directed as much to Nikki as to Stephanie.

Nikki blurted out, "Steph just blasted some guy in the creative office, it was great."

Paul pulled away from his wife's hug far enough to look into her eyes, "You're yelling at people already?"

"Only one who deserved it, right Nikki?"

"Right, uh... the guy was an asshole."

Paul pretended to speak sternly to his wife, "And things are okay between you two?"

Nikki was surprised to hear, "Yes, I think Nikki will be a faster learner than we thought." She certainly intended to be a fast learner.

"Well I'm pleased to hear that. Listen, I should leave you to get on but before I do I think you should probably get all the guys together in the meeting room up the hallway there and say a few words. You know, first night with a new boss and all."

"That's a good idea, could you get them all in there for me? Get someone to put enough chairs in there. In fact can you get all the crew members in there too?"

"Sure thing honey, give me a few minutes. See you soon." Paul kissed his wife and walked out.

As Stephanie sat back down Nikki was looking through the schedule for the show, "Is there anything else we need to change Stephanie?"

"Nikki you can call me Steph, I'm not going to tear your head off you know."

"Okay, so uh... is there anything to change?" Nikki was delighted with how this was going.

Stephanie took the document from her and read through it again, "No, I think we'll leave it as it is. It's not perfect but we have a lot of work to do to get things running the way I want them, it's not going to happen tonight."

"I see they have you out there for the opening segment."

Stephanie nodded, "Yes, the fans need to get the idea that there's a change in leadership and a change in direction as there's a new CEO. They have me as a face character trying to get the title away from Brock Lesnar. I actually came out popular from the Cena thing, how about that?"

She hadn't thought about what she was saying and she saw Nikki look down at the floor, "I'm sorry Nikki, that's not what I meant."

"Steph there's another time and place to talk about this."

"You're right," she looked at her watch, "Anyway I've got a speech to make."

As Stephanie got up Nikki risked, "Steph? My advice? Don't read the riot act to the guys. They've been working very hard, inspire them."

Stephanie had stopped but she had her back to Nikki so Nikki wasn't sure what the reaction was going to be, "You know, my dad always has a strange instinct for things."

"What do you mean?"

"I think he was right, we'll work well together. Let's go."

* * *

Nikki entered the room before Stephanie and sat down in the empty chair in the from row that Paul had thoughtfully made sure was available for her, next to him.

Stephanie walked in and noticed there was no applause, just a strange silence as if people did not know what would come next. She cleared her throat and began, speaking loudly and clearly and leaving gaps in between her sentences so that everyone could take in every word of what she said.

"I've just been told that everyone in this room is working extremely hard."

"Whilst that may be true, you're not working hard enough."

"Let me explain the situation to you. We're not going out there tonight to entertain twelve thousand people."

"We're not going out there tonight to entertain millions of people around the world."

"We're going out there to do battle with TNA."

"We're at war with a strong and tough enemy. An enemy who want to put us out of business."

"I can't promise you that when this is all over you will all be here."

"Some of you will fall by the wayside, either injured or unable to make the grade."

"But this I promise each and every one of you. I will be the first one out there tonight on the battlefield."

"And when this is all over and TNA are out of business I will be the last one to step off it."

"And when I do that I will not forget the contribution made by anyone in this room, big or small."

"This I swear on the memory of my mother."

"So help me god."

Stephanie walked quickly out of the room before the tears that were pooling in her eyes could escape. Paul was only a second behind her as she went through the door, "Steph that was incredible. I don't know what to say. Where did that come from?"

She let out a deep breath as she wiped her eyes, "No one applauded Paul, it didn't work."

"Oh it worked Steph, I had goose bumps and I imagine so did most other people in that room. I saw Nikki had tears in her eyes. No one applauded because they were too taken in by what you said."

Stephanie smiled, "Then they know how important this is to me."


	9. A Compliment For Nikki

"I need a drink," Stephanie said as she headed back to her office with Paul walking next to her.

"I've never heard you speak like that honey, not in public I mean."

She opened the door to her office and walked in, "It just came to me as I was saying it, I didn't plan it in advance."

"Well you made a big impression on those people, I can tell."

Stephanie picked up a bottle of water from the low table in front of the couch and drank half of it before replying, "Good, I meant what I said. I want to finish TNA if it's the last thing I do."

Paul raised an eyebrow, "It means this much to you? Why?"

"Because Rocky doesn't think I can do it. I'll prove him wrong. He'll come to me for a job one day."

Paul laughed, "I wouldn't make a bet on that, even if TNA goes under he will just go back to making movies or something."

"Maybe. Either way we are going to do our part and become the only wrestling show worth mentioning."

Paul kissed her on the cheek, "I'll get out of your way then honey. You asked me not to get involved in what you were doing and I've been in here half the time." As he was making an exit Nikki came through the door, "Stephanie that was amazing," she gushed, "I've never heard anything like that. And what you said about your mom was so moving."

"Thank you Nikki. Could you sit down and I'll practice what I'm going to say out there when the show opens."

Nikki could not have imagined the night going like this, not at all. Stephanie had supported her in front of people, had spoken kindly about her to her husband and now she wanted her opinion on her preparation work. It was beyond her greatest expectations and Vince would not believe it when she told him later. She sat down and Stephanie began to run through what she planned to say in the ring but there was a knock at the door.

Clearly irritated Stephanie yelled, "Yes?"

The door opened hesitantly and Nikki saw that it was the guy from the creative team that had been rude to her, until Stephanie had put him in his place. Stephanie barked, "What do you want?"

The guy sounded apologetic and nervous, "About before, I'm sorry Mrs. McMahon. After your speech in there and I can see what this means to you. I wanted to say that nothing like what happened earlier will happen in my department again."

Stephanie nodded, "Very well. Wait. Your department?"

He held out his hand to her, "I'm Darren Hunt, I'm the head of the creative department."

Stephanie raised her eyebrows as she shook the offered hand, "I uh... don't mean to sound rude, again, but why have I never heard of you? You weren't head of creative the last time I was here."

"No I wasn't. Your dad, I mean Mr. McMahon has fired two of us since you were last here."

Stephanie laughed, "Well let's not make it three by the end of the night then." She noticed that he didn't seem to find it as amusing as she did so she continued, "You guys are the most important people in this place, you know that? If the stuff you write is garbage we won't draw viewers from TNA."

Darren nodded, "That's why I came in here, to say you'll get the best from me and my people."

Stephanie smiled, "I appreciate that. If you don't mind we are kind of in the middle of something."

"Of course." He left hurriedly and closed the door gently.

"We're going to beat TNA aren't we?" Nikki asked enthusiastically.

Stephanie turned and stared at her, leaving no room for doubt, "Yes." There was a pause but then Stephanie shook her head slightly as if to clear it, "Come on Nikki the show is about to start, I need to get out there."

Nikki trailed after her as they left the office. She had noticed the awkward moment and wondered what was going on in Stephanie's head. Now was not the time to consider it, "Steph? I want to thank you for uh... well I thought this would be harder than this."

Stephanie did not break her stride, "I promised my dad I would try and it hasn't been as difficult as I expected. You're a difficult person to dislike Nikki."

Nikki figured that was the closest to a compliment she could have hoped for and it was music to her ears, "Thanks, I guess. Do you think I'll ever work with you on screen too?"

Stephanie stopped and looked at Nikki, clearly she had not considered that idea, "We'll talk about that." A few minutes later as Raw went on the air Justin Roberts the ring announcer open the show with the announcement, "Please welcome the new CEO of WWE, Stephanie McMahon."

As Stephanie's music played there was a welcoming cheer from the crowd, obviously the majority of them knew of the personal problems she had been through. Those kinds of things always managed to leak to the public somehow.

As she got into the ring and prepared to speak she heard a chant growing louder in the arena. It was something that she had insisted to her dad would never catch on, "Steph! Steph! Steph!" Apparently it had.


	10. Step-mom

Vince McMahon answered his cell phone eagerly, he had been waiting on this call, "Hi Nikki, obviously you are still alive, is my daughter?"

Nikki laughed, "Yes we are both alive and we're not in jail either."

Vince laughed too, "Well that's better than I expected. Seriously, how was it?"

"It was fine, actually I enjoyed it. Steph really made an effort not to be a bitch to me and she tried to teach me a thing or two."

Vince honestly had not expected that even though his daughter had promised him she would try, "That's great Nikki, that's really great. I love my daughter more than I can say but she can be hard work. Especially recently."

Nikk picked up on another reference to Stephanie's problems but she let it go with another laugh, "That isn't hard to imagine. Hey, you should have seen her tear into this guy from the creative office, it was incredible."

Vince closed his eyes, "She lost it with someone already? I knew this would happen."

"Vince he deserved it okay? And the way she put him in his place, my god. She told him to shut the fuck up!"

Vince could not help a smile, "Daddy's girl huh?"

Nikki laughed, "That's for sure. You should have heard the speech she gave to everyone in the locker room too, basically she said that no matter what she's going to put TNA out of business and she will remember everyone's contribution when it's done. She swore that on the memory of uh... your wife."

Vince did not respond as his eyes filled with tears. It was not something that happened to him often but that sentence had hit the spot.

* * *

Paul hugged and kissed his wife as she walked into their hotel room, "So how was your night?"

Stephanie flopped onto the bed, "Stressful, but good. How about you?"

"Going to work and doing nothing apart from watching my wife run around frantically trying to cope? I could get used to it." She gave him one of her biggest smiles, "Bastard."

Paul lay down next to her, "Seriously though you're okay? I mean you'll be okay Thursday when I'm not there?"

"Yes. I have Nikki to help me."

Paul raised his eyebrows, "That's it, the game's up. What have you done with my wife?"

She giggled, "Shut up. I mean it, I think she will do a good job. Surprisingly she didn't irritate me the whole night."

Paul got up to pour her some of the wine he had ordered from room service. As he handed it over he said, "This will mean a lot to your dad."

"I know. That's why I'm trying my hardest. I may or may not like Nikki but I love my dad."

She took in a mouthful of wine as Paul smirked, "So you have no problem working with your step-mom?"

Stephanie choked on the wine as she tried to swallow and it dribbled down her chin onto her blouse, "Oh Christ. Nikki Bella is my step-mom."

Paul laughed loudly, "Yes, she is."


	11. Nikki's First Test

"I don't think you should be in here Brie." Nikki said as she hurried around Stephanie's office making last minute adjustments. It was Thursday night and it would soon be time for Smackdown. Nikki hoped that the changes she had made to the office would be acceptable.

Brie sat on the couch, looking irritated, "If Stephanie has a problem with me spending time with my sister she can kiss my ass. We always travel and together and stay together in the arena you know that."

"Don't make this difficult Brie, please. I'm here to do a job and I don't need it to be any harder because of stupid arguments."

Brie narrowed her eyes, "Wait, you're enjoying this job aren't you? You said you were dreading it on Monday?"

Nikki turned to her, "I was dreading it on Monday. Now I'm not. I already told you, things were okay. Stephanie tried to teach me a few things and she spoke nicely about me to Triple H."

"She's a bitch Nikki, always will be," Brie warned.

"She's not a bitch all of the time Brie, she's just the boss. It's tough you know."

Brie raised the palm of one hand to her forehead, "Oh god, why didn't I see this coming?"

Nikki stood with her hands on her hips, "What? What do you mean?"

Brie shook her head, "That's what this is all about. Vince wants two Stephanie's running around. If the real one isn't here then you can carry on just the same."

Nikki pleaded with her sister, "It's not like that Brie. Vince wants me to be a success at something, is that so bad?"

"They'll change you Nikki. They'll mess with your head."

Before Nikki could respond the door opened and Stephanie walked in, "Hi Nikki."

"Hi Steph."

Stephanie looked around the office, seeming not to notice Brie, "Are you serious right now?"

"I did tell her to go before you arrived," Nikki mumbled nervously.

Stephanie seemed not to hear, "You got me the same chair I have in my office? That's excellent."

Nikki was relieved that she had misunderstood, "Oh, yeah I made a phone call."

Stephanie sat in the comfortable office chair as if to test that it was really the same, "Thank you Nikki. Hi Brie, something you need?"

Brie got up and tried not to sound rude, "No, I just thought I might spend some time with my sister. We usually don't spend much time apart."

"Well we have work to do an you're not kids, so if you don't mind?" She gestured towards the door with one hand.

As Brie walked past her sister she mumbled, "What did I tell you?"

"What did she just say?" Stephanie demanded coldly.

Nikki closed her eyes, "Please let's not do this Steph. Monday went well and..."

"I asked what she said?"

Nikki decided to be honest, figuring this was the only way to avoid an argument, "She thinks you're a bitch and eventually you'll turn me into one too. I told her not to be stupid but..."

Stephanie's laughter interrupted her, "So being in charge makes you a bitch automatically now?"

"I guess to some people it does."

Stephanie removed her laptop from its case and opened it, "Can you please go and get tonight's schedule and some coffee? We'll read through it together."

Nikki left the room and walked down the corridor thinking that her sister must be wrong about what she had said. At least she hoped so. Stephanie was going to start messing with her head, she was just teaching her. That was what Nikki needed.

When she arrived back in Stephanie's office she decided to try and make sure that the atmosphere was positive, mainly to put her own mind at rest, "Steph I want to thank you again for trying to teach me on Monday night, I'm not sure how good I can be at what we talked about but, just thank you."

The only reaction she got was a slight raise of one eyebrow, "You don't know how good you can be at it? We'll find out."

Nikki shifted nervously on her feet, "We'll find out? What do you mean?"

Stephanie carried on reading whatever she was looking at on her laptop, "You just told me you don't think you can be assertive with someone. We'll find out."

Nikki's heart started pounding, "How will we do that?"

Stephanie looked up at her now, "The next person than barges in here complaining about something, you're going to deal with it as if I'm not here."

Nikki gulped, "I'm not ready for that Steph, it's only my second night."

"It wasn't a question Nikki."

"Right."

It did not take long for opportunity to present itself. They had only read through half of the schedule when the door opened and Randy Orton sauntered in, "Stephanie, we need to talk."

Stephanie made her irritation obvious with her expression, "Can you knock? I mean, you know how right?"

Orton grunted, "Sorry. Anyway..."

Stephanie placed the schedule she was holding on the desk and leant back in her chair, "Nikki is in charge tonight Randy, talk to her."

Orton laughed, "Yeah okay, right, Nikki is in charge. Good one. Look let's not waste time..."

He could see that Stephanie was not listening so he turned to Nikki, "Seriously? I have to talk to you?"

Nikki tried to sound as authoritative as possible, "That's right, what do you want?"

Orton smirked, "This is stupid, I don't know what the game is but I'm out of here."

He was halfway to the door when Nikki yelled, "Stop!"

Stephanie could not help one corner of her mouth turning upwards slightly, although she did not want Randy to see it as he turned back around and Nikki said, "I asked what you want. I didn't say leave."

Randy looked at Stephanie again, "You've worked fast on your new pet."

Nikki stood up, "For the last time Randy, what do you want?" He decided to play along at last, "I want to know why I'm never in the title picture. Vince started burying me ages ago and I want it to stop. Now."

Nikki looked at Stephanie for help or advice but she just sat there with her arms crossed over her chest. Nikki was clearly on her own so she thought for a second, "Maybe it's because you are one of the people that was referred to the other night as not working hard enough? Have you thought about that? Maybe you should be out there busting your ass like other people do instead of sauntering around moaning that you don't get everything given to you on a silver platter. Maybe that's it Randy!" She knew her voice had raised too much towards the end and she felt her hands shaking which she guessed Randy would notice. It was hardly on Stephanie's level of outbursts to say the least.

Randy looked from Nikki to Stephanie and back again with a strange expression on his face, "Whatever," and he stormed out.

Nikki turned to Stephanie and watched a smile slowly get bigger on her face, "Not bad, for a beginner."


	12. Twin Magic

Stephanie narrowed her eyes at the email she was reading on her laptop, "What the hell is this?"

Nikki put down the two cups of coffee she had just returned with, "What is what?"

Stephanie looked pissed off, "This email. I asked for an update on our injury list and this says that Wade Barrett and more importantly Daniel Bryan have both been cleared to return and we are 'waiting for a creative opportunity'."

Nikki sat down looking a little puzzled, "That is strange. Brie didn't mention anything to me about Daniel being able to return."

Stephanie growled, "A creative opportunity? What the hell is wrong with these people? Did they not listen Monday night? This is a war we're in with TNA. I want everyone who's able back out there at the first opportunity."

Nikki smiled, sensing an opportunity, "How can I help?"

This seemed to distract Stephanie from her angry rant, "What?"

"I asked how can I help?"

Stephanie thought for a few seconds, "Go tell the creative people I want something written for Daniel Bryan to make a surprise return on Monday. Then go tell Brie to tell Daniel that he needs to be back here Monday night ready to compete. I'll get in contact with Barrett and find out what his story is."

Nikki shifted nervously on her chair, "You want me to tell Brie to tell Daniel to get back to work Monday?"

Stephanie's voice bordered on sarcasm, "It's going to be a late night tonight Nikki, if you're going to repeat everything before you do it."

"It's not that, it's just, she's acting strange towards me since I took this job."

Stephanie sighed and stood up, "Forget it, I'll do it myself."

Nikki realised that not only would she look bad if that happened but things would probably go worse with Brie and Stephanie than if she went herself. She jumped up, "No. No, I'll do it." As Nikki hurried out of the door Stephanie sat back down and sipped her coffee with a smile.

As Nikki entered the women's locker room she saw Brie and Emma were the only two people in there. She heard Brie say, "Can you give me a minute?" As Emma walked past her Nikki noticed the slightly cold look she got from her. Nikki heard the locker room door close behind Emma and her sister suddenly turned on her, "Thanks a lot Nikki. I mean really, thanks so much."

Nikki took a step back in surprise, "For what? What did I do now?"

Brie hissed, "Maybe you'd like to explain why Randy Orton just walked past me out there and said 'You'll be women's champion next I suppose?' And when I asked him what he was talking about he told me about how you'd just laid into him and you think you're in charge around here now!"

Nikki was stunned, "I didn't say that."

But Brie hadn't stopped, "So now every time I get an opportunity everyone is going to hate me because they think I'm being given things by you that I don't deserve."

Nikki didn't know how to respond to this outburst, "It's not like that."

Brie turned her back on her sister, "Just get out Nikki. She's changing you. This is what I was afraid of."

Nikki had heard enough of this and she felt her own anger rising, "I can't get out."

Brie turned back to face her, "What is that supposed to mean?"

"I'm here to tell you to tell Daniel that he's got to be in Chicago on Monday for Raw and he's going to compete."

Brie voice grew quiet, threatening, "What? We had an agreement with Vince that Daniel wouldn't be used for another month to make sure he was completely healed. He still has the occasional twinge of pain in his arm."

"Uh... we've had an email saying that he's cleared to return, so he's got to be there Monday."

Brie's eyes closed and her cheeks began to turn red with anger, "She sent you to do this didn't she?"

Nikki did not like where this was heading, "We both agreed that..."

Brie screamed, "Bullshit! Don't lie to me Nikki! She sent you in here to this, and you still don't see it."

Nikki rubbed her forehead with her fingers, "Brie will you stop this? Please? I'm just doing my job and so is Steph. You're giving me a headache."

This seemed to make her even angrier, "Steph now is it? Christ, Nikki what's wrong with you? You're in a relationship with a sixty nine year old man and you're working with his bitch daughter and you're enjoying it. This is going to go so wrong."

Nikki finally lost her temper, "Yes I am enjoying it! And Steph's not the one being a bitch, you are!"

Brie screamed, "I don't know if it's Vince as well but it's definitely her, this is exactly what she wants!"

Nikki screamed back, "Shut up Brie, you're the one causing these arguments. Just tell Daniel to be there Monday." With that she stormed out and slammed the door with tears in her eyes.


	13. Don't Come Between Us

As Nikki walked back into the office Stephanie got up and walked over to her, "Nikki? What's wrong? Have you been crying?"

Nikki was embarrassed, "No. I just..."

Stephanie hugged her which really took her by surprise, "It's Brie. She's, I don't know what's wrong with her. She was screaming at me in there. It was awful."

"Screaming at you? Why?"

"She was ranting about how me having this job will make people think she doesn't earn her opportunities or something and then when I told her about Daniel she totally lost it. She was screaming about how this was you deliberately causing us to have arguments and she tried to blame Vince too. She doesn't want us to work together."

Stephanie led her to the couch, "Sit down Nikki. I'm sorry, I should have seen this coming. It was obvious really."

Nikki wiped away fresh tears from her eyes, "What was obvious?"

Stephanie sat down next to her and sighed, "She's jealous of you Nikki, that's what this is. I've seen it before, I've experienced it myself. Jealousy can be a nasty thing."

Nikki thought about that for a few seconds, "You might be right, but why?"

Stephanie smiled, "That's obvious. You're the more talented sister and now you have a job to prove it. You're in a position of power and she's not and she knows she never will be."

Nikki felt tears in her eyes again, "I love my sister."

Stephanie put an arm around her, "I know Nikki, I'll try and help you with this uh... problem. Whatever happens I'm here for you, you're part of the McMahon family now." Nikki's eyebrows raised at that.

* * *

Stephanie was making her way back to her office after completing a segment in the ring. She was preoccupied with running through it again in her mind and wondering if she could have done any better when someone walked into her, "Oh, sorry." She looked down at Brie Bella.

Brie stared angrily up at her, "Sorry? You will be. I know what you're doing you bitch."

Stephanie was shocked to say the least, "Excuse me?"

"Don't play games with me Stephanie. You may run this place but we're talking about my family."

Stephanie was shocked, "Brie, are you trying to threaten me?"

Brie looked up at Stephanie trying to look as menacing as possible, "I'm telling you to stop trying to come between me and my sister. I see what you're doing and I know what you're capable of. Do not try to change her."

Stephanie leaned down to Brie so that their noses were nearly touching and growled, "If you knew what I'm capable of the last thing you would be doing is attracting my attention."

Brie took a step back, realising she had handled this very badly, "Stephanie I'm sorry about how I just spoke to you but she's my sister. Please don't do this."

"She doesn't need you interfering in her work Brie. You put ideas in her head that don't need to be there. I'm teaching her to do this job and she's trying to learn but every step of the way you are there telling her she's doing things wrong and you're upsetting her."

"Stephanie I..."

Stephanie barked, "Shut up! I'll tell you once Brie and I do mean once, stop interfering with Nikki's work. This is a family business and Nikki is part of the McMahon family now."

Brie felt tears in her eyes, "She's my family too Stephanie. Don't come between us."

Stephanie calmed down, "Outside of work hours she is. Don't let me see you in my office talking with Nikki again."

Two minutes later Stephanie breezed back into the office and informed Nikki, "I just had a chat with your sister."

Nikki's eyebrows raised hopefully, "Really?"

Stephanie sat behind her desk, "Yes. She started out with that crap she was giving to you earlier but I put her in her place. I told her to stay away from you during work hours."

Nikki looked sad, "If you think that's for the best?"

"You've only been doing this job for two nights Nikki and look at you. You shouldn't be in here concentrating on your sister and her insecurities, you're here to do a job."

Nikki took a deep breath to compose herself, "Yes, you're right."

Stephanie smiled, "Perfect. This is a tough life sometimes Nikki, but you've got what it takes. I can see that."

Nikki smiled, "Thanks Steph, for everything. You don't know how happy I am to hear that."


	14. Time To Talk

Vince McMahon waited impatiently for his daughter to answer her phone. Surely she should be back at the hotel by now? Eventually the call was answered, "Hi dad! Sorry, I've only just gotten off the phone to Paul and the girls."

Vince smiled, "Hi Steph, just wanted to check in and see if everything went okay tonight?"

"Yes dad everything was fine, at least business wise."

Vince grimaced, "What does that mean?"

"I just had to put Brie Bella in her place dad that's all."

Vince sighed, "Why?"

His daughter sounded irritated by the memory of what had happened, "She's just always in Nikki's ear trying to tell her I'm teaching her wrongly or whatever. She's really pissing me off to be honest. She also had the nerve to come at me in the hallway and threaten me. Can you believe that?"

Vince put his head in one hand, "Can't you ever just get along with people Stephanie, for god's sake."

Her voice raised, "Me? What did I just tell you? She tried to threaten me."

Vince sighed again, "Stephanie I'm your dad, I've known you for thirty seven years so trust me you don't fool me for a second."

"Daddy..."

Vince began to get annoyed and but her off, "And don't daddy me either. I already talked to Nikki and she's upset about what's going on with her sister. I'm telling you now to stop making it worse. If Nikki calls me upset about this again I'm holding you responsible for it."

Stephanie whined, "I'm not trying to upset Nikki dad, don't be stupid. I'm trying to teach her and I don't need that little shrew of a sister of hers going behind my back and..."

"Well you've made your point to Brie, I've already heard all about it. Now leave her alone. That's an order."

Stephanie pouted, "I can't believe you thought I'd try to upset Nikki on purpose. I'm trying really hard and this is what I get from you?"

Vince felt a little guilty now, "Sorry Steph, just please make sure Nikki isn't unhappy at work. That's what I'm worried about. Do it for me, please?"

"Okay dad."

"Goodnight Steph."

He ended the call and Stephanie threw her phone angrily onto the bed and mumbled to herself, "God damn it, maybe he's right. Why can't I help myself?"

She stood there for a minute trying to calm down until she saw that her phone was flashing again. She picked it up to see who was calling and saw that it was Nikki. She left it for a few seconds whilst trying to decide if answering was a good idea. Eventually she decided to answer, "Hi Nikki."

Nikki sounded upset, "Steph, I'm sorry. I talked with Vince and told him what happened tonight and uh... he seemed to blame you. I didn't mean it to be like that."

Stephanie cut her off, "No Nikki, I'm sorry. I only made things worse by tearing into Brie in the hallway. Her attitude irritates me but as long as she doesn't try to get involved in your work I promise it won't happen again."

Nikki sounded relieved, "Thank you Steph, I really want to do well at this but I don't want it to be this hard with Brie."

Stephanie considered for a few seconds what to say next, eventually deciding to go with her instincts, "What are your plans tonight Nikki?"

"Uh... I don't have any."

"Why don't you come up to my room, there's a conversation we need to have, about before."

Nikki thought for a moment, "Yes, we do need to talk about a few things. I'll come up."

Stephanie smiled, "Room eight twenty, I'll get room service up here with a bottle of wine."

"Great, see you soon."


	15. Stephanie's Story

"Come in Nikki, have a seat."

Nikki walked into Stephanie's huge hotel room, "Wow, look at this place. I need a room up here!" She laughed as she sat down on one of the couches.

Stephanie laughed too, "Speak nicely to my dad then."

Nikki took the glass of wine Stephanie offered, "Thank you, and thanks for uh... the chance to talk."

Stephanie sat down opposite Nikki, "No need to thank me, we need to clear some of the past problems up if we're going to work together in the long term."

Nikki sipped her wine, "You're right. Those few weeks were crazy."

"They sure were, especially for me. My head wasn't working right after mom died."

"I'm sorry Steph, about your mom."

Stephanie looked down at her drink, "Me too. I don't even remember the funeral, can you believe that?"

Nikki's eyes widened, "Really, you were that out of it?" Wow Stephanie really had been a mess.

"Sometimes I was, sometimes not. It's hard to say. I'm fine now I have my meds but during that time I don't know what the hell I was doing most of the time."

Nikki's eyes looked distant, "That night when you came and told me to quit, you were definitely gone that night, my god."

Stephanie mumbled, "I'm sorry about that Nikki. It wasn't even about you, I just wanted to hurt John. I wanted to hurt him in any way possible."

Nikki did not speak for a while, "How much do you know or remember about what happened after that? I mean what did John tell you? You know, when he..." Her voice had trailed off.

Stephanie felt the fear rushing back to her as she began to talk, "When he abducted me? It scares me more to think about it now than it did at the time. That's crazy right? At the time I convinced myself not to panic but now it terrifies me."

Nikki got up and poured more wine and handed Stephanie's glass back to her, "Steph we don't have to go into that."

"No, we do. I'm going to tell you my story and then you can tell me yours. That's the only way we can put this behind us. I learned from my therapy. I'll try and remember everything as clearly as I can but it can be tough so can you uh... not interrupt me?"

Nikki sat back down, "Sure Steph, if that's what you need."

"Okay, I was about to get in my car. I was going to meet someone. Well that isn't important but I was about to get in my car when John hit me on the head with something. He must have knocked me out cold because the next thing I remember is I was in the trunk of my car and I was tied up and my hands were handcuffed behind me. I was blindfolded and there was tape wrapped around my mouth. I couldn't scream and I could barely move. I knew I couldn't get free. It's so scary to think about it now, I mean he could have pulled the car over and killed me at any point."

"Eventually we got to that crappy apartment he was living in and he untied me but he handcuffed my wrist to the bed so I still couldn't get free. He was ranting about needing money for his dad and that it was all my fault that he couldn't pay for cancer treatment as he had no money and you couldn't help anymore."

"He mentioned about how you both spent all your savings on some huge house he had no options left. He actually thought I could transfer him a million dollars. I mean what was he thinking? That because I'm worth a lot of money I can just access a sum like that on the spot? He was totally crazy."

"He also wanted me to write down everything I'd done to ruin his life. Christ alone knows what he wanted that for, I mean did he think my dad was going to give his job back or something? I have no idea."

"I honestly thought he would kill me, I mean I couldn't get him a million dollars just like that and he had a knife..."

Nikki was horrified and could not help herself interrupting, "My god Steph, I can't imagine what that was like. How did you get away? I mean I know you smashed his face in with a lamp, he told me that."

Stephanie's eyes widened in shock, "You've visited him? You've spoken to him?"

Nikki nodded, "Yes, once. We'll talk about that later. Sorry, I interrupted."

Stephanie took a moment to get back to where she had been with her story, "Right, so anyway I knew I had to get free if I wasn't going to get hurt so I tried the only thing I could. I knew John was attracted to me so I talked him into having sex with me."

Nikki's mumbled "Oh god." did not stop Stephanie from talking, "Somehow he fell for the fact that it wouldn't be right unless I was on top, as I was in the limo that day and he released me. I climbed on top of him and tried to strangle him. It nearly worked too but he managed to throw me off the bed."

Nikki saw that Stephanie was struggling to tell her story now so she took her hand but Stephanie did not seem to notice, "He grabbed the knife, I grabbed the lamp. I told him I'd beat him to death if he made a move on me but he tried. He jumped over the bed at me and I caught him flush in the face with the lamp. It knocked him out cold. That was how I escaped. "

Stephanie had decided it would be better to leave out certain other details.

Nikki looked horrified, "Steph I don't know what to say. I mean you're so brave, I couldn't have fought like that."

Stephanie finished her glass of wine and got up to pour another, "You could Nikki, when the choice is fight or die believe me you can fight. Well that's my story and the little I know about what actually went on with you and John."

She refilled Nikki's glass and handed it back to her, "So, your turn."


	16. Nikki's Story

Nikki took the glass of wine as Stephanie sat back down, "Well I don't have much of a problem remembering what happened so if you want to ask anything then you can."

Stephanie leaned back and relaxed on the couch now that the difficult part of reliving what she had been through was over, "Okay."

Nikki took a sip of wine, "Right, where to start? I guess when John told me about what happened in that limo. He was insistent that it was you that had forced it but naturally I thought he was trying to lie to make it look like he hadn't just cheated on me."

"We had a huge argument that went on for like an hour or something but he kept insisting the same story so eventually he convinced me to believe him. I told him to stay away from you as you clearly were... uh..."

Stephanie helped out, "Crazy?"

"Well yeah. Anyway things weren't good for a while but we got back on track and he kept telling me about how strange you were when you were around him and then you told your dad that he had assaulted you or something which was total bullshit."

"Nikki I don't..."

"Steph it's okay, don't try and justify it to me. I know your head wasn't right and it's in the past anyway. So, eventually that night came in Miami when you screwed him out of the title. He was so angry, I'd never seen anyone that angry before. All night he was ranting about you and how you were trying to ruin his life and if it didn't get sorted he would have to go work for TNA as it was the worst possible time in terms of money."

"When I asked why he was so desperate for money that was when he told me about his dad needing cancer treatment. He hadn't even told me, can you believe that?"

Stephanie was confused, "I thought I remembered him saying to me that he told my dad about it. Maybe I'm wrong, I mean telling my dad and not you? Why?"

"I don't know Steph, maybe he already hated me because of all the money we put into the house. He had said we didn't need one that big for the two of us but you should have seen it. It was in the most beautiful location and it had pools and Jacuzzi's and... well it doesn't matter now. It was an amazing house and we put all of our savings into it."

"Even though we put all of our money into it we still had huge payments to make on it every month so of course when John lost his job with WWE we were screwed. I told him I was getting out of there as we were inevitably going to lose the house and that's when we had another huge argument and he hit me. Until I went to visit that was the last time I saw him."

Stephanie leant forward, "Oh god, Nikki I remember now I got told about that. I'm sorry."

Nikki voice was bitter, "Well you weren't sorry at the time. It wasn't long after that when you told me to quit WWE. I've never seen anyone look at me like you did that night, I can't even describe it. I remember calling you an animal and you said 'worse, human.' I just wanted to get out of there, I thought you were going to attack me I really did."

Stephanie looked down, "I'm sorry Nikki. As I said it wasn't even about you and, well I'm sorry okay?"

"It's in the past Steph, I said that before. Right, you told me I had to quit but I had no home to go to, I was staying with Daniel and Brie. I would have been done with no job and no money so I went to see your dad and I broke down and told him everything. He said that he needed time to get you some help and he needed it to look like I had quit so I could stay home and he would still pay me."

"So that's when things started between you and my dad?"

"Basically yes. Both of our lives were a disaster especially Vince's. He'd lost his wife and he thought he was losing his daughter and then, well your abduction happened and I just had to be there for him. I know you find it hard to believe Steph but we really do love each other very much."

Stephanie nodded, "I can tell by the way he speaks about you."

Nikki smiled sheepishly, "Really?"

"Yes. Only tonight he called me and tore into me because you were upset when he called you. He pleaded with me to try to get along with Brie for his sake and for yours and I promised that I will try my best."

Nikki blinked away a tear, "Thank you Steph. I know my sister can have an attitude but I'll speak to her and we can work things out."

There was a silence which was eventually broken by Stephanie, "I'm so tired Nikki. I think you should go but thanks so much for this, it's great to know the air is clear between us."

Nikki stood and smiled, "It is. I really want to be a part of the family and I want to succeed at this job more than anything." Then she had a thought and added, "Hey you don't know do you? I mean I've visited John and you haven't."

Stephanie's eyes narrowed in confusion, "I don't know what?"

"You seriously fucked his face up with that lamp, he's got two huge scars on his cheek. Something to remember you by."

Stephanie could not help a smile, "Really? He was too covered in blood when I ran away from the apartment. Wait, why did you tell me that?"

Nikki shrugged, "John means nothing to me now, I love Vince."

Stephanie reached a decision she had been considering in the back of her mind for the past hour, "Nikki when we fly back tomorrow I want you in my office in the afternoon."

Nikki was immediately worried, "What did I say?"

"Not like that Nikki, I've been thinking, you're never going to learn this job properly only working two nights a week, actually it's ridiculous. You're going to work full time for me, you'll be in the office the same hours as I am."

Nikki was stunned. This was almost too perfect for words, "I don't know how to thank you."

"Then don't, just be there."

It was Stephanie's turn to be shocked as Nikki hugged her, "Thank you for being so good to me, I could never have imagined this."

"Nikki it's fine, honestly. You're family now anyway."

Nikki released her and started laughing, "That's right... you're my... what are you? Step-daughter!"

They both laughed and Stephanie shook her head, "My step-mom is seven years younger than me."

They both laughed even louder.


	17. Desk Job

Stephanie picked up the phone on her desk and heard, "Nikki Bella is here to see you Mrs. McMahon."

"Send her in."

The door opened and Nikki walked in wearing a brand new light grey suit, a white blouse and a huge smile, "Hi Steph."

Stephanie returned the smile and gestured to one of the chairs in front of her desk, "Good afternoon. Did you tell my secretary that she was fired?"

Nikki sat down, "Did I what?"

"Well, if you're going to be working here the same hours that I am she's not going to be needed."

Nikki looked down and mumbled, "I didn't think of it like that. I don't want to cost someone their job."

Stephanie laughed, "I'm joking Nikki. I'm going to get you an office down the hallway near the elevator."

Nikki looked back up and could not keep a smile of delight her face, "I'll have my own office?"

Stephanie tried to hide a smile or her own and Nikki's enthusiasm, "Well, it's more of a janitor's closet with a desk in it."

Nikki was still smiling, "I wouldn't care if it was. Thank you. So uh... what do I have to do?"

Stephanie was serious this time, "Handle all of the crap I don't have the time or the intention to deal with. All of my emails, mail and calls will come to you in the first instance and you will only pass on what actually needs to come to me to this office.."

Nikki looked nervous, "It will hard for me to decide on things like that to begin with."

"I know that Nikki, that's why you'll be spending at least the first two weeks working with my secretary. Her name is Lucy and she already knows about this. You can introduce yourself properly later. Now what do you say we go surprise my dad?"

Nikki's voice rose in surprise, "You didn't tell him? You said you would tell him!"

Stephanie got up with a mischievous smile, "How would that have been fun? Come on, let's go barge into his office."

Nikki stood and followed Stephanie out of the door, "We can do that?"

Stephanie laughed, "I can. I like your company Nikki, I always seem to laugh when you're around."

Nikki was a little surprised at the compliment, "Thanks Steph."

"Wait here until I say." Nikki nodded and Stephanie crashed through Vince's door without even knocking, "Hi dad."

Nikki heard Vince reply, "The amount of times I've heard you bark at people for not knocking on doors and you still do it every time to me."

"It's because it annoys you daddy," Stephanie chirped, "Anyhow I have a surprise for you."

Vince sounded nervous, "Will I like it? Your surprises can turn out to be anything."

"You'll definitely like it, I've hired a second in command here in the office."

"You've what? You should have asked me."

"Not really daddy, I'm CEO now and I can do what I want."

Nikki nearly laughed at the way Stephanie spoke to her dad which would have given the game away. She heard him say, "Stephanie don't play games. Who did you hire?"

Nikki heard her cue to enter, "See for yourself."

Nikki walked in and saw a huge smile appear on Vince's face as he saw her. He got up and walked towards her, "You hired Nikki to work with you full time?"

Stephanie beamed, "Yes daddy, I did."

Vince hugged Nikki, "Congratulations, I love you."

Stephanie had rarely heard her dad speak like that, even to her mom. He turned to Stephanie next and hugged her, "Thank you princess, this means so much to me."

She hugged him back, "Well, I don't really like her but... as it's for you..."

They all laughed.


	18. Phone Call To Brie

Nikki sat in her new office. It was not anything like the size of the office Stephanie or Vince had and there was no secretary or waiting area to go with it but Nikki was really pleased with it. She already had her own office on the top floor of WWE headquarters. It was too much to take in, especially with a problem on her mind. She needed to speak to her sister and try to get her to smooth things over with Stephanie before it got out of hand. She decided that waiting any longer would not make it easier and picked up the phone and dialled.

Brie soon answered, obviously not knowing the number, "Hello?"

"Brie, it's me."

The voice grew a little colder, "Oh it's the boss. Something I can do for you?"

Nikki pleaded, "Don't be like that, please. I'm not calling to argue with you."

"Okay, so what is it?" Clearly Brie was not going to make this easy.

Nikki tried again, "I spent the whole night last night talking with Stephanie in her hotel room and..."

"I don't want to hear this Nikki. You want to go live with the queen bitch then it's your decision. You know I think it's a bad idea."

Nikki was getting frustrated, "For god's sake Brie just listen will you? We spent the whole night talking and we both told each other our stories about the whole mess with John and it really cleared the air between us."

"That's great, really pleased for you. Goodbye Nikki."

Before she could hang up Nikki shouted, "You know Steph was right, you're just a jealous little bitch."

Brie raged, "What did you just say to me?"

"I called you a jealous bitch. I made this call to tell you that Steph wants to apologise to you for your confrontation last night. She wants things to be okay between all of us but you could care less."

Brie snapped, "As far as Stephanie McMahon is concerned you're damn right I could care less. Daniel and I will have to speak to her Monday and as far as I'm concerned that's way too soon. I have to go." Before Nikki could reply the call had been ended.

Nikki was saddened by her sister's attitude and went to try to talk to Stephanie about it but soon found out the Stephanie and Paul had gone out for lunch and Vince was in a meeting and could not be disturbed. Suddenly she felt very alone.

* * *

Later that afternoon Nikki managed to get Stephanie alone in her office, "Steph can we talk for a minute please?"

Stephanie did not stop typing on her keyboard, "Sure, what's on your mind?"

"It's Brie. I called her earlier and she's still acting really strange with me. I don't know what to do, she won't even talk to me."

Stephanie stopped typing and idly scratched the side of her nose with a thoughtful expression, "I'll speak to her Monday night for you."

"Thanks for the offer Steph but I think speaking with you will make it worse at this point."

Stephanie got up from her chair and stood looking out of the huge windows that formed the back wall of her office, "So what's your suggestion?"

Nikki wasn't sure, "I don't know. All I can think of is maybe we talk to her and Daniel, all four of us. Maybe if he's there then she will be able to keep calm. Will you please try not to piss her off? I so badly want us all to get along. I don't want her out of my life, she's my sister."

Stephanie remained looking out of the windows, "I will try but I seem to have a real talent for pissing your sister off."


	19. Impending Confrontation

"I'm not doing it Daniel," Brie Bella fumed, "I'm just not doing it."

Daniel Bryan was getting frustrated with his wife, "Brie, we've been standing here for ten minutes arguing about this. When Stephanie, Nikki and Triple H get here we're going in to talk to them and you're going to apologise to Stephanie and to Nikki for your attitude."

Brie huffed, "No. No chance. I'll apologise to Nikki but no way in hell am I apologising to Stephanie. I told you what she said to me Thursday night, 'if you knew what I'm capable of the last thing you would do is attract my attention,' that's a threat Daniel."

Daniel tried and failed not to sound irritated, "Just remind me, this was after you barged into her in the hallway and tried to threaten her, right?"

Brie stared angrily at him, "Whose side are you on here?"

Daniel laughed, "Have you heard yourself? What are you, twelve?"

Brie closed her eyes and managed to speak a little calmer, "I'm sorry, it's just, even the thought of that woman pisses me off and now my sister thinks that she can walk on water."

"Stephanie has been good to Nikki, Brie you know that."

Brie raged again, "Only for her own selfish reasons. I mean what was that about Thursday night? Stay away from Nikki during work hours? Who the hell does she think she is interfering in my relationship with my sister?"

Daniel's frustration was rising again, "You do know she like, owns this place, right? I mean every Monday and Thursday you come to work you're working for her. It might not be for long though if you keep this up."

Brie snorted, "She's not going to fire me Daniel."

He laughed, "Seriously? She'll fire John Cena because she doesn't like him but she's going to let Brie Bella keep bitching at her every week and do nothing about it? You need to think about what you're doing Brie."

"What do you actually want from me? I don't like her and I don't like my sister working with her."

"You're going to do what I said earlier, go in there and apologise to Nikki and to Stephanie and whether you mean it or not you're going to sound as if you do. And then you're going to stay away from Stephanie as much as possible, agreed?"

Brie sighed, "Fine."

* * *

Paul climbed out of the limo followed by Stephanie and Nikki. Nikki gushed, "Thanks guys for letting me ride with you."

Stephanie straightened her jacket as she replied, "You don't have to keep thanking me Nikki. The day will come when you show up one Monday or Thursday night and I'm not here for whatever reason and you'll be in charge of this place. You can't exactly show up in a cab."

Nikki picked up on something in Stephanie's tone and it worried her, "Are you okay?"

"I've been delayed waiting for my flight, delayed waiting for this idiot limo driver, I'm late arriving here and I have a headache. So no, I'm not okay."

Paul put an arm around his wife as they walked into the building, "We'll get in there and have a coffee and relax for a few minutes before anyone does any work, okay honey? Just don't stress."

Stephanie moaned irritably, "It's easy for you to say don't stress, you show up here and film a couple of backstage segments and spend ten minutes in the ring and you're done. I'm on the go all night."

Paul removed his arm from around her, "Steph just go relax in your office okay? I'll be there in a minute."

He stopped walking and Nikki realised that she was supposed to stop too, "Nikki go find your sister and keep her out of the way for an hour or so. If she shows up with an attitude now things are going to end badly. Get some coffee too."

Nikki turned and hurried down the hallway towards the locker room to try to find her sister, not realising it was already too late. Brie and Daniel were already waiting outside of Stephanie's office.


	20. Brie Mode

"This isn't a good idea, Brie." Daniel Bryan warned his wife as leant against the door to Stephanie's office, "We should wait until we're asked to come here."

Brie glared at him crossly, "I've had to wait since Thursday night for this and you've talked about nothing else all night. I'm not waiting for her to summon me like she's the queen of England or something."

"Or your boss?"

Brie did not respond to Daniel's heavy sarcasm so he tried once again to calm her down, "Don't say anything stupid. Seriously, neither of us need you to get fired. Just apologise to Stephanie and your sister and we'll get out of here."

Brie hissed, "Aren't you forgetting something? Like maybe we need to ask why you're back here a month before we agreed with Vince. What if you get hurt again? I'll kill her."

Daniel closed his eyes tightly, wishing this could all be over, "No one is going to kill anyone and I'm fine to wrestle. I've been cleared so Stephanie has every right to call me back in if she wants to."

Brie raged, "That's not what we agreed with Vince is it?"

"What's not what you agreed with 'Vince'?" they heard as Stephanie came around the corner a few yards away.

Daniel mumbled, "Great, Brie. Well done."

Brie turned to Stephanie but did not answer the question. Stephanie snapped, "Maybe I said that in Russian, should I try again? What's not..."

Brie snapped over the top of her, "I heard you, I'm not deaf."

Daniel tried to intervene as things were already obviously not going the way he wanted them to, "Hi Stephanie, good to see you."

Stephanie walked between them and opened the door to her office, "Hi Daniel, if you want some advice I'd get your wife out of my face."

Brie tried to walk into the office after Stephanie and stopped her from closing the door, "So now you don't want us in here? I thought you were desperate to get Daniel back out there? Huh? Although we told you we agreed with Vince..."

Stephanie turned around and grabbed Brie with both hands by the front of her red Brie Mode t-shirt and lifted her off her feet and slammed her up against the wall next to the door before growling, "The name you're looking for is Mr. McMahon, or sir. Family or friends call McMahon's by their first names and you're never likely to be either, bitch. Now get out before I fire your ass."

Daniel gently pushed Stephanie out of the way and Brie dropped back to her feet, "Stephanie leave her please, we'll get out of here." He grabbed Brie who tried to lunge at Stephanie, "Get off me! Let's go you bitch, me and you, right now!"

Before Stephanie could react Daniel had carried Brie out of the door and crashed straight into Paul who demanded, "What the hell is going on in here? I could hear you at the end of the hallway!"

Although she was being carried away from the office Brie was still yelling at Stephanie, "Put your hands on me again, bitch! I dare you!"

Paul yelled at Daniel, "Just her out of here!" and stormed into Stephanie's office and slammed the door. No one had noticed Nikki standing at the end of the hallway with tears running down her cheeks.


	21. Discipline

Before Nikki opened the door to Stephanie's office she could hear her shouting inside, "No Paul, that's it! She's fired!" Nikki walked in and they both turned to look at her. Paul saw the tears on her cheeks and said, "Oh god, you saw that didn't you?"

Nikki nodded and pleaded with Stephanie, "Steph please don't fire her. I don't know what she just said or did but please..."

"It's too far now Nikki, I'm done..."

Nikki begged, "Please Steph, I'll do anything. I'll work for nothing, I'll do whatever you want just please don't fire her. You've been really good to me this last week so I'm begging you not to fire her. Suspend her, do whatever, just don't fire her. Please, she's my sister."

Stephanie had turned her back on Nikki and Paul and she began pacing around the office. Nikki was about to speak again but Paul gently placed a hand on her arm, clearly a signal to be quiet. She looked up at him and he silently mouthed the words, "Leave her." Nikki figured he knew his wife better than anyone so she remained silent as Stephanie paced around the room.

After a silence lasting nearly two minutes Stephanie let out a deep breath and turned to Nikki. Her voice was calmer than Nikki had expected, "You speak very well in your sister's defence."

Nikki pleaded again, "I mean it Steph, I'll do anything..."

Stephanie held a hand up to silence her, "I don't need to hear more from you, I've made a decision." She was interrupted by the sound of her phone ringing. She snatched it out of her pocket and answered the call, "Not now dad."

Nikki could hear Vince screaming even though the call wasn't on speaker. She guessed someone had quickly called him about this mess and he was blaming Stephanie for it. Without thinking she snatched the phone from Stephanie's hand and yelled, "Vince, Nikki, shut up! This isn't Steph's fault it's my stupid sister! Steph just kindly agreed not to fire her so you're going to leave us alone and quit being part of the problem!"

Without waiting for a response she ended the call and slammed the phone down on the desk. Before either Stephanie or Paul could say anything Nikki pointed at Stephanie and yelled, "You sit down and shut up!" She then pointed at Paul, "And you calm her down. I'll..." Suddenly she realised how she had just spoken to both of her superiors, "I'll... go get some coffee."

She blushed and hurried out of the door leaving Stephanie looking dumbfounded and Paul with a big grin on his face. As she was making sure she closed the door quietly she heard Paul talking and he sounded amused, "She just put you and your dad right. I need her around more often!"

When Nikki returned to the office with the coffee she saw that Stephanie and Paul were sitting on the couch holding hands and Stephanie appeared to be calmer. She was about to start apologising for the way she had spoken to both of them when Stephanie spoke first, "You want to take charge of this Nikki? Then go, deal with your sister. I don't want to hear a word until you come back and tell me what you've done."

Nikki nodded and left the office. What other choice was there? Her heart was pounding in her chest, this was the last thing she had expected. What was she supposed to do? Surely Stephanie realised she was not going to fire her own sister? But she realised she had to do something to punish Brie or Stephanie would go wild. It was her first big test and she had to pass it.

By the time she had tracked down where Brie and Daniel were she had made a decision. Daniel had taken his wife out to the parking garage to cool off. Nikki walked up behind them, her voice took them by surprise, "Brie, you're out of control..."

Brie spun around and was about to speak but Nikki held a hand up to stop her, "No Brie, shut up. I told you not to do what you did today and I'm sure Daniel did too. You're on suspension, thirty days."

Brie raged, "Thirty days? Bullshit..."

"Sixty days. One more word and I'll fire you Brie I swear to god. You're going to respect Stephanie and you're going to respect me. We're your bosses god damn it. You need to be in Stephanie's office Wednesday at one pm with either a different attitude or a resignation letter, you're in a disciplinary hearing." Before Brie or Daniel could respond Nikki stormed away from them.

Nikki sheepishly entered Stephanie's office once more, "Stephanie, Paul, about before..."

Stephanie interrupted, "What did you say to your sister, Nikki?"

Nikki had no idea whether what she had done would be acceptable or not so she spoke nervously, "I suspended her for sixty days and told her to be in your office Wednesday at one pm with a different attitude or a resignation letter for a disciplinary hearing."

Stephanie's eyes had widened and Paul had laughed. Stephanie asked, "Sixty days? Why sixty?"

"I started at thirty but she told me it was bullshit so I made it sixty."

Stephanie couldn't hide a smile now, "I see, and how do you know I'm free at one pm Wednesday for your hearing?"

Nikki raised the iPad she had in one hand, "I have your schedule on here. Wait, what do you mean my hearing?"

Stephanie smiled now without trying to hide it, "Do you know what you proved here tonight Nikki?"

"No?" Nikki's nervousness was plain as day.

"You proved that you can take control of a situation and deal with it even when people around you are losing their heads and even when family are involved. That's very impressive Nikki. I'll speak to my dad about what happened here and he will be delighted." Nikki noticed that Paul nodded his agreement at this. That was a very good sign.

Even so Nikki blushed, "Thanks Steph, but what do you mean 'my' hearing?"

Stephanie stood up and slapped her on the shoulder, "You arranged it Nikki so you're going to lead it."

Nikki gulped, "I'm going to what?"

"You heard. I'll be in there with you but you're in charge, let's see if you have to fire your sister."


	22. Reporting In

Stephanie was back in her hotel room and waiting for an answer as she called Vince. Eventually she got one, "Hi Steph."

"Hi dad." Before she could continue Vince proceeded, "Sorry for yelling before. What the hell happened tonight?"

Stephanie tried not to moan as Paul massaged her feet. Vince's question was ignored, "How are the girls dad?"

"Sorry, they're fine but as you're late calling they are all asleep so you'll not be able to chat to them."

Stephanie had expected that, "That's fine, as long as they are all okay. They all behaved themselves?"

He laughed, "They always do for Granddad Vince, he's not as strict as mommy."

Stephanie pouted, "I'm not strict with them dad."

"I know princess, I'm teasing. So what happened tonight? Nikki hasn't called me yet."

Stephanie laughed, "She's probably drunk."

"Drunk? Why would she be drunk?"

Stephanie snatched her feet away from Paul as he began to tickle them, "Stop it! Go away!"

"What?"

"Not you dad. Let me start from the beginning. Brie was waiting outside of my office when I got there and she started giving me attitude again as she did Thursday. I lost it and picked her up and slammed her up against the wall and threatened to fire her."

She heard her father sigh, "Christ Steph, would you learn to..."

"Stop interrupting dad, where was I? Right, Daniel dragged Brie out of my office then Paul and Nikki came in and Nikki begged me not to fire Brie. I'd managed to calm down a bit but before I could tell Nikki that I wouldn't fire Brie you called."

"Yeah sorry about that but I got a call saying you and Brie were fighting and after what I told you the other night..."

"Right dad, forget it. Anyway Nikki cut loose at you and then when she hung up on you she told me to sit down and shut up and she told Paul to calm me down."

Vince burst out laughing, "She told you to sit down and shut up?"

Stephanie laughed too, "Yes she did. I told her she impressed me with that and I told her to go deal with her sister herself."

Vince sounded interested now, "Really? Nice idea. What did she do?"

"She went and told Brie she was suspended for thirty days. Brie gave her some attitude so Nikki made it sixty days and she told her to get into the office on Wednesday for a disciplinary hearing."

"Really? She handled it really well it seems to me."

"I thought so, in fact I told her so. I also told her she's in charge of the hearing."

Vince sounded unsure about that, "You think that's a good idea?"

"I'll be in there with her don't worry. She told Brie it would be in my office but obviously I need the boardroom for something like this. Is it free?"

"If it's not I'll make sure that it will be."

"Thanks dad, see you tomorrow. Goodnight."

"Goodnight princess."

As Stephanie ended the call Paul pounced on her and the tickling and laughing resumed.


	23. Preparation

Nikki heard a knock on her office door early on Wednesday morning, "Come in!"

The door opened and Stephanie's secretary, Lucy walked in. Nikki gave a welcoming smile, "Hi Lucy."

"Good morning Miss Bella, do you mind if I sit?"

Nikki gestured to the empty chair in front of her desk, "I've already said, enough with this 'Miss Bella' stuff Lucy it's uncomfortable."

Lucy shuffled through the paperwork she had brought in, "Two things I got used to quickly in this job, don't address superiors by their first name and always knock on a closed door."

Nikki shifted in her chair, "I'm not superior to you Lucy, we work together."

Lucy smiled, "No, you and Mrs. McMahon work together, I work for you."

Nikki shook her head slightly, "This doesn't bother you?"

"No, it is what it is. I enjoy the job and make good money."

"What is it like to work for Steph?"

Lucy looked like she was not convinced that this was not a trick question so she said evenly, "You know her as well as I do I'm sure. When you do your job well it's great, when you don't, well, it isn't."

Nikki smiled, "I can imagine that. What do you have there?" She gestured at the pile of paperwork that Lucy had brought in with her.

"Mrs. McMahon had me bring this to you. Firstly you need this." She handed over a thick document in a file. "It's our disciplinary procedures. You need to read the relevant sections that relate to the meeting you're leading this afternoon and familiarise yourself with the possible action you can take against whoever it is you're taking action against."

Nikki looked at the file worriedly, thinking that it would be a big task to look through all of this and familiarise herself with the necessary areas by one pm. Distractedly she said, "It's my sister."

Lucy was about to hand over some more paperwork but she froze, "Excuse me?"

"I said it's my sister. I'm taking disciplinary action against my sister."

"I see." Lucy said, although she clearly did not, "After the meeting is over you need to complete this report, it details what was discussed and the outcome, including what action you have ordered."

Those words floated around Nikki's head 'the action you have ordered' she struggled to believe this was real. She had only been in the job for just over a week and it was only her third day in the office and yet she was going to lead a disciplinary hearing against her own sister. What the hell was this all about? She heard Lucy saying, "Are you okay Miss Bella?"

She shook her head to clear the thoughts from it, "Yes, sorry. So I fill this in after the meeting?"

"Right, then hand it back to me, I can handle it for you from there."

Nikki nodded, "Okay, anything else I need to know?" She desperately hoped the answer would be no but instead she heard, "Next we need to go over some procedures."

Nikki tried not to let the stress show on her face, "Procedures?"

"Yes. As you are leading the meeting and as it's in the boardroom there are certain procedures to adhere to."

Nikki put her hands up in frustration, "Wait, just wait. The meeting is in the boardroom? I've never even been there! I don't even know where it is! And what procedures? God, I can't do this."

"Close your eyes, count to ten in your head," Lucy attempted to calm her.

Nikki was even more confused, "What?"

Lucy soothed, "Do as I say. Close your eyes and count to ten in your head. It's what I do when I'm about to lose my composure. It works like a charm, for me anyway."

Nikki did as Lucy had said and she did feel a little better, "Thank you. So, procedures?"

"Right. As you're leading the hearing you will enter the boardroom last. According to what I have here," She flipped through a few pages in the rest of the paperwork she was holding, "Ah, there we are," she had apparently found the right piece of paper, "It's only you Miss Bella, Mrs. McMahon and your sister. Therefore you will sit at the end of the table. When you walk in Mrs. McMahon will be seated to your right and your sister will be to your left. Usually in these situations your sister would be at the far end of the table but as it's just the three of you Mrs. McMahon must have changed it. Either way, you walk in and say good afternoon, then the meeting can begin. Everything clear?"

Nikki badly wanted to say no but of course the only answer she could give was, "Yes. Uh... Lucy?"

"Yes?"

""Where is the boardroom?"

Lucy smiled, "Don't worry, I'll take you there when the time comes."

"Thank you Lucy."

* * *

"There you are Miss Bella, you enter through that door." Lucy said later that afternoon as they stood outside the boardroom.

"Thank you again Lucy."

"My pleasure, come find me if you need any help with the report when you're done here."

Nikki smiled, realising that she would have been totally lost with Lucy's help, "I will. You've really helped me today."

Lucy nodded and walked away. Nikki felt her heart pounding in her chest. This was it, behind that door was the boardroom and in it her boss and her sister were waiting for her. She straightened her jacket and took in a deep breath and walked towards the door. Time to pass another test. She had to. There was no other way.


	24. The Hearing

Nikki entered the boardroom and was immediately surprised. There was no sign of Brie and Stephanie was sitting in the chair at the top of the table which was not what she had been told to expect. She wondered what the hell was going on, "Uh... Steph? Where's Brie? What's happening?"

Stephanie gestured to the chair to the right of her, "Sit down Nikki."

Nikki suddenly had a terrifying thought; could Stephanie have fired Brie and could she be next? She sat down in the seat Stephanie had indicated, "Stephanie, where's Brie?"

Stephanie smiled which reassured Nikki a little, "I moved the hearing forward Nikki, I've dealt with Brie. We'll come to that later."

Nikki had no clue now as to what was going on, "Sorry, I'm lost."

"I've been testing you from day one Nikki. I've thrown everything at you. I made you stand up to Randy Orton, one of our biggest stars and you did it. I sent you to tell your sister to get her husband back to work when we both knew she wouldn't like it and you did it. I sent you to discipline your sister Monday night and not only did you do it you were tough with her. Then to top it all I told you that you would come into this boardroom and lead a disciplinary hearing against your sister and here you are prepared to do it. You're an inspiration to me Nikki."

Nikki's mouth had dropped open a little and she couldn't respond for a few seconds, "I'm a what?"

Stephanie laughed at the expression she saw, "I said you're an inspiration to me. If my dad had tried even half of that crap with me in my first two weeks here I would have quit."

Nikki blushed, "I don't know what to say."

"Do you know what I did when I started working here Nikki?"

Nikki shook her head slightly, "No?"

"I worked on a reception desk in the accounts department."

Nikki raised her eyebrows, "Really?"

"Yes really. That's where I began to learn about this business. You've been straight in at the deep end and the way you've handled it has been incredible."

Nikki could tell she was still blushing, "Thank you."

Stephanie continued calmly, "You've got a lot still to learn but I've seen what I needed to see from you. You're different to me Nikki and that's a good thing."

"Different how?"

"You've seen me these last two weeks Nikki and you've seen how I deal with people. If people don't do things the way I want or they say the wrong thing at the wrong time I blow up at them. That can be effective as we discussed before, but you're different. You keep calm and you get whatever it you're trying to do... done.

Nikki shifted in her seat, "I don't feel calm Steph, I feel my heart pounding in my chest and I feel so nervous."

"But you don't show it Nikki, that's what matters. You appear calm to the person or people that you're speaking to."

Nikki grinned, "What about Monday night when I yelled at you and Paul?"

Stephanie giggled, "That was the best thing I've seen from you. No one has ever spoken to me like that at work, probably not even my dad. You said what needed to be said."

Nikki suddenly remembered there was something that had not been cleared up, "Steph, did you fire my sister?"

"No Nikki I didn't. She came into my office and she apologised for her attitude. She openly admitted she doesn't like me personally but she said that she will not show up to work again with any kind of attitude problem."

Nikki sighed with relief, "So what did you do?"

"She's on suspension for thirty days and I ordered her to apologise to you before she can return to work."

Nikki closed her eyes in relief, "Thank you Steph."

Stephanie got up and stretched, "So, what all this means Nikki, is that I'm putting you on a salary that's more appropriate for your level of ability. We'll talk about it tomorrow but as for right now go home. You've been through enough today."

Stephanie was confused as Nikki was now looking down at the table, "Nikki?"

Nikki mumbled, "I don't have a home."

"What do you mean?"

"I haven't had a home since I left John. Vince has been paying for me to live in a hotel."

"What's wrong with him?" Stephanie growled angrily, "Why didn't he have you move in with him?"

Nikki did not look up, "We had to wait until you and Shane were okay with it."

Stephanie raised an eyebrow, "You mean me? You can say it."

Nikki looked up and there were tears in her brown eyes, "Yes I mean you. Vince told me how you reacted when he told you about us."

Stephanie ordered, "Come here Nikki."

Nikki stood and was surprised when Stephanie hugged her, "I'm proud that you're part of my family and I'd love it if you moved in with my dad."

Stephanie heard Nikki crying softly in her arms, "Calm down Nikki, please. Don't cry."

Nikki managed to say, "Thank you Steph, thank you."

Stephanie kissed Nikki's forehead softly, "Come on Nikki, let's go wash up and we can go tell my dad." As Nikki tried to stop herself crying Stephanie led her towards the door.


	25. Part Of The Family

Stephanie was about to walk into Vince's office with Nikki not far behind but Vince's secretary stopped them, "He's in a meeting Mrs. McMahon, I'll tell him you're looking for him when he's done."

Stephanie looked at her watch and said to Nikki, "Go buy us some lunch from somewhere and meet me back in my office, we can wait for him there."

Nikki returned fifteen minutes later with some sandwiches and joined Stephanie in her office. She handed over a sandwich, "You didn't say what you wanted so I hope this will be okay?"

Stephanie looked at the contents of the sandwich, "This is fine. I just sent Lucy to get coffee."

At the mention of Lucy's name a realisation hit Nikki, "That paperwork she brought in to me earlier and all of those procedures she was talking about, that was you testing me wasn't it?"

Stephanie finished her mouthful of sandwich, "Yes. I didn't think you would sit and read through all of that crap but again you did it."

Nikki shook her head, "I nearly lost it, it was all so much to take in."

"I know."

"Wait, Lucy reported straight back to you didn't she? God damn it, why didn't I realise?"

Stephanie smiled, "Don't blame her Nikki, she does what I say without questioning it."

They ate their sandwiches in silence for a few minutes until Stephanie said mischievously, "When my dad comes in here let's pretend like you've decided to quit, or I've decided to fire you or something."

Nikki grinned, "You really like getting a reaction from your dad, don't you?"

Stephanie laughed, "Dad's too easy but yes it's fun."

They finished their sandwiches and it was not long before Vince walked in. Stephanie started into him straight away pretending to be serious, "Could you knock? How many times do I have to tell people?"

Vince was straight on the defensive, "Sorry Steph. Hey, you always do that to me anyway!"

Stephanie voice was firm, "Sit down dad, we've got something to talk about."

Vince did as he was asked and looked at Nikki, "Nikki? Are you okay? I mean is everything okay?"

Nikki looked down, playing along with Stephanie's game, "Not really."

Stephanie cut in, "Nikki has decided that she's not up to the job. She's just quit."

Vince's eyes widened and he turned to Nikki again, "I thought you were enjoying the job?"

Stephanie cut in again, "I'm not happy to be honest. Two god damned weeks I've wasted on trying to train her. I told you it would be a waste of time. It was obvious she would be useless."

Vince's face started to turn red and he growled, "Shut up Stephanie, leave her alone!" He was confused as he heard Nikki start giggling and then Stephanie laughed too. Finally he caught on, "You're ribbing me? Okay, you got me. What's really going on?"

Stephanie smiled now that the game was up, "We asked you to come see us as I've decided that Nikki is more than capable of doing the job you asked of her. Therefore I've decided to put her on a salary appropriate to the responsibility she's going to have. I can't speak highly enough of either her work or her attitude, in fact she's an inspiration to me."

Vince's heart melted at what he had just heard and he got up and walked around Stephanie's desk. She got up and they hugged, "That means so much to me Steph. Thank you. I'm so glad you two are getting along."

He released her and accepted Nikki's hug who was now waiting behind him, "Congratulations Nikki, I'm so proud of you. I knew you could do it."

They began kissing but Stephanie cleared her throat, "Uh... could you wait until you're home to do that? Or at least out of my office?"

At the mention of the word home Nikki had looked at Stephanie eagerly and got a slight nod in response. She was happy for Nikki to tell Vince what they had talked about earlier. Nikki babbled excitedly, "Vince, Steph and I had a talk earlier and I mentioned my uh... living arrangements and I don't think Steph is happy with you, right?"

Stephanie confirmed, "Right. What are you thinking? Your uh... girlfriend is living in a hotel room? What's wrong with you?"

Vince was confused, "Wait, what are you saying?"

Stephanie gave him her biggest smile, "I'm saying I want Nikki to move in with you as soon as possible. I told her and I'll tell you, I'm proud for her to be a part of this family."

Vince hugged his daughter again but he could not think of anything to say, he was too shocked by what had just happened.


	26. A Problem?

That night as Paul and Stephanie lay in bed she told him about what had happened that afternoon. As she finished the story Paul sounded surprised, "I'd have never believed it baby, you're actually getting along with Nikki Bella. I remember how you reacted when your dad told you." He chuckled at the memory.

Stephanie replied tiredly, "Yes, well, I was wrong about her. She's very good at her job and she obviously makes dad very happy. You should see them together."

Paul quipped, "No, that's not something I ever want to see."

She turned onto her side to face him, "Seriously, my dad really loves her. If she makes him that happy then I am happy for them."

Paul kissed her, "You really tried hard on this honey, thank you."

Her eyes narrowed in confusion, "Why are you thanking me?"

"Everything in our lives has been stress these last few months. I imagined that this would go on for weeks or even months with you and Nikki and your dad at each other's throats every night you worked together. I'm just glad that didn't happen."

Stephanie had closed her eyes and her voice had faded, she was close to sleep, "Me too, everyone can be happy now."

* * *

Thursday night, backstage at Smackdown Stephanie was in her office working on her laptop. She was wondering where Nikki was as she had not seen her yet. After another few minutes Nikki finally arrived with coffee and some paperwork, "Hi Steph."

Stephanie looked up, "Hello Nikki, where have you been?"

Nikki put Stephanie's drink in front of her, "I've been going over the TV ratings. Since you've been in charge our ratings have improved, we're still below TNA but well, see for yourself." She handed Stephanie the paperwork.

Stephanie flicked through it but Nikki could not detect any sign that she was pleased with it. Eventually she put the paperwork down on the desk and carried on with what she was doing on the laptop. Nikki was confused at the lack of response, "Steph are you ok? You don't seem yourself?"

"I'm fine Nikki, let me concentrate please. Go do whatever you have to do."

Nikki stood up, "Sure, as long as I haven't done something wrong?"

Nikki could tell Stephanie was trying and failing not to sound annoyed, "No Nikki, it's not you. Now go."

Nikki left the office wondering who or what Stephanie had a problem with. Whatever it was Nikki was glad that it was not with her.

* * *

Friday was the big day for Nikki, she had finally moved into Vince's house. It had not taken long as Nikki did not have many possessions to move. She was basically starting a new life from scratch with Vince and his family. Brie still had not contacted her which made her sad but she was determined that she was not going to call her sister, after all Brie was the one who had caused all of the problems with her stupid attitude. She was also worried about Stephanie, she had not seemed herself all night at Smackdown and had hardly spoken to anyone on the flight home or at the office in the afternoon.

She walked into the living room where Vince was relaxing on a couch watching a news channel on the TV. He turned to her as she walked in, noticing that she had dressed for bed. She was wearing a long nightshirt which finished just above her knees and the top two buttons were open. She leaned over to kiss him and he got a very pleasant view of her chest. She sat down next to him then pulled her legs up onto the couch and lay with her head resting on his shoulder and chest, "I can't believe we finally live together, that I live here," she purred.

Vince put an arm around her, "I know sweetheart, it's been a tough time but we're going to be very happy now."

Even at this time and occasion Nikki still could not stop thinking about how Stephanie had been acting so she decided she had to speak to him about it, "Vince, did you speak to Steph today?"

Vince was paying more attention to the thought of what she was wearing, and what she wasn't than to what she had said, "No, didn't really see her today."

Nikki wriggled his arm from around her, annoyed that he was not listening to her, "There's something going on with her."

He looked at her now, finally attempting to pay attention, "Huh?"

"I said there's something going on with Steph, she wasn't herself last night. She hardly spoke to me, in fact she didn't speak to many people at all. It was the same on the flight home and in the office today. I may have only been working with her for two weeks but I know when she's ticking about something. I have no clue what it is though."

Vince thought for a few seconds, "Well, I don't think it's anything at home as Paul seemed fine today in the office. I'd like to think he would say something if they were having trouble."

Nikki nodded, "So it's probably not that. You don't think she's had second thoughts about us do you? Or about me working with her?"

Vince turned the TV off, instead of interesting him it was now distracting, "I don't think it would be that. She was really happy about it Wednesday. I know she likes working with you so I'm sure that's not it."

Nikki put Vince's arm back around her, "I don't know then, hopefully she'll have a nice weekend and we'll see her back to normal on Monday morning."

Vince kissed her, "I'm sure she will be fine. She can be a strange woman sometimes, my daughter. You'll get used to it."

A few seconds later he spoke with a hint of mischief in his voice, "I don't want to think about my daughter right now."

Nikki picked up on it but acted innocent to play along, "What would you like to think about?"

Vince grinned, "Do you know I'm not sure. I usually think better upstairs."

Nikki laughed at his lack of subtlety, "Really?" She stood and he quickly did the same. She took his hand and led him out of the room.


	27. Board Meeting

Nikki hoped that Stephanie would be okay now that the weekend had passed. Surely she had spent a nice couple of days with Paul and the kids and she would have spoken to him about whatever was troubling her? She looked at her watch and saw that it was past nine am. Stephanie would definitely be here, there was a board meeting at ten. Maybe that was it? Stephanie's first board meeting was playing on her mind? Nikki decided she would take Stephanie a coffee and see if she wanted to talk.

She fetched two drinks and went to Stephanie's office. As she approached the door Lucy looked up from her computer and warned, "Probably not a good idea Miss Bella."

Nikki walked over to her, "She's still not herself?"

Lucy wore a thin smile, "I know Mrs. McMahon better than you do. Someone is going to get both barrels today, believe me."

Nikki sighed, "What's wrong with her?"

"You tell me? I just try to stay out of the way if I can when she's like this. It's much worse these last few months. You probably should steer clear too."

Nikki turned and headed for the door to Stephanie's office, "No, I'm going to talk to her."

She heard Lucy mumble, "It's your funeral."

Nikki knocked on the door and walked in. She saw Stephanie standing, looking out of the windows that made up the far end of her office, "Hi Steph, I brought coffee."

"I've just had one."

Nikki put the drink on the table, "I thought maybe you'd like to talk?"

"No thank you."

Nikki tried again, "You're not exactly good at hiding the fact that you're pissed off. Why don't you tell me about it?"

Stephanie still had not moved and her voice had not changed from its usual calm but there was an atmosphere that screamed to Nikki to go away. She decided to try for a final time, "It's obvious you're going to tear into someone..."

The reply was so quiet that in its own way it was threatening, "Go away Nikki and it won't be you."

Nikki did not need to be told twice, she hurried out of the office and quietly closed the door. She had pity for whoever it was that Stephanie's mind was focussed on.

* * *

Vince stopped by Stephanie's office as it was time to go to the board meeting. He was about to knock on the door when Stephanie walked out of it. He greeted her, "Hi Steph, ready for the meeting."

The only response he got was a cold, "Yes." She walked past him with even a hug which was very strange as he hadn't seen her since Friday.

His mind flashed back to what Nikki had said to him, "Steph wait, what's wrong? You're not nervous about this meeting are you?"

She carried on marching along the hallway, "No."

Vince knew his daughter could be impossible to talk with when she was like this so he caught up to her but didn't say anything else before they entered the boardroom.

* * *

Stephanie sat in the boardroom not really focussing on the discussion. She distractedly played with the pen that was on top of the notepad in front of her, it was the only thing keeping her from boiling point. She had not spoken a word the whole time.

Vince noted the way Stephanie was fiddling with her pen and the expression on her face. He would have made a bet that she was about to lose her cool but he had no clue as to why. He could not ask her either now, not in the middle of the meeting. He realised that he had also stopped listening to the discussion. He heard Kevin Dunn, the Vice President of Television Production talking to him, "Vince?"

"Sorry, what?"

Kevin repeated, "Do you have the ratings there?"

"Oh, yeah here they are."

Kevin smiled kindly at Stephanie, even though it was obvious it that the gesture was not going to be returned, "Let's have a look then, see how we've done since you took over."

He flicked through the sheets of paper and noted that the ratings were up on where they had been the month previous. He nodded, "This is good..."

Stephanie slammed the palm of her hand down on the table with a loud bang that stunned everyone in the room as she simultaneously yelled, "No!"

They all looked at her in shock as she stood and snatched the papers from Kevin's hand. She waved them angrily and yelled, "This is not good! This is what's wrong with you people! This is what's wrong with everyone is this company! You see a small improvement and you're happy with it!"

She slammed the papers back down on the table, "Well I'm not happy with it, god damn it! I don't want our ratings to improve slightly! I don't want to be attempting to compete with TNA! I want them gone! My family built this business and I'm not going to watch it die! If I'm the only one around here that can get that into their heads then I'm wasting my time! I'm not here to fuck around!"

The last sentence hung in the air as she finally managed to control herself and sit down. No one spoke for a long time before Vince eventually managed to say, "I'm sure we all admire your passion Stephanie but we don't conduct ourselves like that in this boardroom..."

Kevin Dunn cut him off, "She's right Vince. We're not looking at the bigger picture. We need to get back on top and we need to make changes if we're going to do it."

Stephanie was trying to regain her composure, "There's one, who else is with me?"


	28. In Charge

Nikki was worried. It was long past the time when she should have left to get the flight out to Raw with Stephanie and Paul, but there was no sign of either of them. She was about to get up from her desk to look for them again when the door opened and Paul walked in, "Come on Nikki, we need to go."

She got up immediately but asked with concern, "Where's Steph?"

"They're still in that board meeting. God only knows what's going on in there, they should have been done ages ago. We can't wait for her any more or we'll never get there before the show starts. It's going to have to be me and you tonight."

Nikki hurriedly put on her jacket and followed him out of her office.

* * *

On the flight Nikki began to panic. She was glad that Paul had sat next to her so at least she had someone to talk to, "I don't think I can do this."

Her superior had his eyes closed, evidently trying to rest. He grunted, "Huh?"

She repeated, "I don't think I can do this. I only started this job two weeks ago, I'm not ready to take charge of Raw."

Paul opened his eyes, "You'll be fine. From what I hear Steph has no doubts that you can do it."

Nikki fiddled with her watch nervously, "I wish I shared your confidence."

He had already closed his eyes again, "I'll stay with you the whole night, if you need help I'll be there. Don't worry."

"Thanks Paul." She was relieved at the offer of help but she certainly could not manage to not worry.

* * *

As they walked through the building to find Stephanie's office or Nikki's office as it was for tonight, Paul spoke, "Just remember, try to stay calm if anything goes wrong. Hell, you're better than my wife at that anyway."

Nikki could not manage a laugh at his joke so he continued, "With any luck there won't be any problems anyway."

As soon as they approached the office it became apparent that this would not be the case. Nikki recognised one of the guys from the creative office waiting near the office. As he saw them approaching he hurried over to them, "Uh... Hi Triple H, where's Mrs. McMahon?"

Paul answered, "She's not going to be here tonight. What's going on?"

"We've got a problem. You know we're supposed to have the Bryan – Lesnar title match? We've been promoting the hell out of it all week and now Daniel can't wrestle."

Nikki demanded, "What do you mean he can't wrestle?"

"He took a knock to the head Saturday at a house show and the doc says he has a minor concussion so there's no way he can go tonight. We need to change the main event." He was looking at Paul but saw Paul gesture towards Nikki. He said to her, "What do you want us to do?"

Nikki was stunned to hear the question directed to her, "You think I know what to do? I don't."

Paul said, "Give us a minute," and led Nikki away with arm around her shoulder. He spoke to her quietly, "You're in charge Nikki, that means you always know what to do. Even if you don't know what to do you must appear that you do in front of the guys."

She closed her eyes in frustration, "But, I don't!"

"Take a minute, think it through, then tell me your idea," Paul encoraged, "If you can't think of anything I'll take over but you can do this."

Nikki had spent more than two minutes thinking, Paul was about to take over for her as he figured that she was failing when she finally spoke, "Okay... okay, I know what we can do." She talked him through her idea.

Paul listened keenly and then nodded, "I like it." He turned to the guy from the creative team, "Go get Daniel Bryan, Paul Heyman, Brock Lesnar and Randy Orton and bring them here."

Paul and Nikki went into the office as the guy hurried away. Paul sat down but Nikki was pacing around the office nervously. "This is big Nikki, I like it and I'll tell Vince and Steph that I agreed with what you've come up with but you should know that if they don't like it you're going to get roasted. You're going with a totally new storyline that they don't even know about."

Nikki nodded, "I know that. They want me to do this job, I'm doing it. If I'm not good enough then it is what it is. No one can say that I didn't try."

Paul smiled, "I think they'll like it, I'm just warning you that they may not. Try to calm down, you're going to need to explain your idea clearly when the guys walk in here. Have a seat."

Nikki sat down in the chair behind Stephanie's desk, her desk. She could not believe this was happening, she was running WWE.


	29. A New Storyline

"Remember Nikki, you've got to sound like you're in charge. Don't sound unsure or nervous or they're not going to buy into this," Paul encouraged as he watched Nikki nervously tapping her fingers on the desk.

She took in a deep breath to try to relax herself, "Thanks Paul, I'd have been lost without you here."

He smiled, "I'm not so sure about that."

Just then there was a knock at the door and Daniel Bryan walked in, "Hi guys, uh... where's Stephanie?"

Nikki remembered the advice she had been given and spoke authoritatively, "I'm in charge tonight Daniel. You definitely can't compete?"

His eyebrows raised at the news, "Oh okay. No I can't. I mean, I want to but you know what the doctors are like with concussions now, even though it's minor I'm on the shelf for at least a week."

"Right, so we've got to change the main event and I know what we're going to do."

She was about to begin when there was another knock on the door and Paul Heyman, Brock Lesnar and Randy Orton filed in. Heyman asked, "Is that about changing the main event? Where's Stephanie?"

Paul answered, "Stephanie isn't here, she's not going to be here. Nikki is in charge so all of you shut up and listen to what she has to say."

Nikki noticed that they all seemed surprised that she was going to be the one to give them instructions but she cleared her throat and began, "Right, we all know Daniel can't wrestle so we've got to change the main event. It's been promoted heavily all week so we're going to have to do something big, and that's exactly what we're going to do."

She decided that a small lie would help to sell the idea to them, "We've been planning on doing this at some point soon but I've decided we start tonight. As I'm sure you are aware Vince and I are in a relationship. Now when she initially found out about this Stephanie was furious. We've worked it out now but we're going to use that initial reaction as the basis for a storyline involving Stephanie's face character on one side and myself and Vince as heel characters on the other side."

Orton interrupted, "Is there a point where this involves me or..."

"Shut up and listen Randy and you might find out. Now, obviously neither Stephanie or Vince are here so it's going to be difficult but here's the idea. Firstly we've got to have a better reason for Daniel to be unfit to wrestle so Brock you're going to film a backstage segment where you attack Daniel from behind and you destroy his knee or his ankle or whatever."

She noticed that she had everyone's full attention now and she was growing in confidence as she continued, "Next we're going to get Kane in front of a camera, damn I should have gotten him in here too. I'll go see him afterwards. Anyway he's going to announce that Mr. McMahon has called him and placed him in charge due to Stephanie's absence. He's going to say that Mr. McMahon has ordered that if Daniel Bryan forfeits his opportunity for the WWE title then he will not be receiving another one."

"We'll do the whole deal where we show Daniel being taken away in an ambulance and we'll have the commentators keep mentioning it throughout the night. Now, here's the most important part. When it's time for the main event, Paul you and Brock will go out there and Paul you will give a promo talking about how Daniel Bryan is faking his injury to avoid facing Brock Lesnar and so on, and then you will announce that the referee will ring the bell and if Daniel Bryan doesn't answer a ten count from the referee Daniel Bryan forfeits his opportunity for the title."

Paul Heyman nodded, "Okay, I like it so far."

Nikki continued, "Now Randy, this is where you come in. As the referee begins counting you will come through the crowd and attack Brock from behind, as the bell has been rung you will cause Daniel to lose by disqualification instead of by forfeit. We'll have the commentary done in such a way as to plant the seed for a face turn for you Randy which we can work on in more detail for Thursday night."

She took a breath as she had finally finished, hoping they had all taken it in. Heyman spoke again, "I like it Nikki." She noted the other guys nodding in agreement and Orton said, "So I get back in the title picture with this thing?"

Nikki nodded, "You asked me for an opportunity, you have it. Do not let me down."

Heyman spoke again, "The only thing I don't follow is how this leads to a storyline between Stephanie, Vince and yourself?"

Nikki grinned, "That's the easy part. Stephanie opens the show Thursday night and demands to know what the hell Vince thinks he's doing changing stipulations on her matches. Vince comes to the ring and tells her he wants to take back control of WWE from her, and he says she's not his little princess anymore. She asks what that's supposed to mean and he says let me introduce you to my new princess, my girlfriend, Nikki Bella. I walk down and tell Stephanie to beat it, that we control WWE now."

The guys were laughing now and Daniel said, "That's great Nikki, I think that will really work!"

Nikki clapped her hands, "Right, there's not much time, go get on with what you need to do."

They filed out of the room and as soon as the door closed Nikki collapsed back into her chair with a sigh of relief, "Did I really just do that?"

Paul had a big grin on his face, "You did really well. The way I figure it you've only missed one thing."

Instantly Nikki was nervous, "What?"

"Everyone thinks that if Steph isn't here I would take charge, so we need to somehow mention that Stephanie McMahon and Triple H have been delayed or taken ill or whatever and both are unable to be here."

She nodded, "Right, we can have Kane do that in his segment. Go get him in here."

Paul laughed, "Yes boss."

Nikki watched him leave and realised that yes, she could do this job.


	30. Selling The Idea

Nikki sat in her office after the show trying to wind down after the stress of the night. She was delighted and relieved that the plan she had put together seemed to go over well with the fans in the arena. She was about to find out if the same could be said about Stephanie. She looked at her phone as it flashed with her boss' name on the display. After taking a deep breathe she answered the call, "Hi Steph."

The voice she heard in response was calm but Nikki detected an edge to it, "Hi Nikki, would you mind telling me why I just saw what I saw when I tuned into the end of Raw?"

Nikki talked her through everything that had happened and the idea that she had put together. There was silence at the other end of the call for several moments. "Steph, are you angry with me?"

"You came up with this in how much time?"

Nikki faltered, "Like, two minutes, maybe three?"

"And this was all your idea?"

"Yes. I mean I ran it by Paul and he liked it but..."

"Including getting my dad back on the road every week, even though you know he wanted away from that?"

Nikki closed her eyes. She had expected that to be a problem, "Yes including that. You don't like it do you?"

"No Nikki I don't like it," Nikki's heart sank as she expected the worst, "I love it. I think it's brilliant."

Nikki was not sure that she had heard correctly, "Sorry, what?"

"I said I love it, especially the angle about you and my dad. We can get the fans to hate you guys, especially as I'm getting a good reaction on this face run."

Nikki could not believe her idea had gone over this well, "Seriously, you think it's going to be that good?"

"Yes I do. Come to my office tomorrow when you fly back and we'll talk. As for tonight you need to call my dad and sell this to him."

Nikki knew that would not be easy to say the least, "Right. Steph? I don't suppose you could..."

Stephanie laughed, "Not a chance Nikki, I've got bed time stories to read. Goodnight."

"Wait, before you go, what was with you this morning? And what happened in the boardroom that took so long? I mean, you sound happier now?"

"Ask my dad, I have to go. Goodnight Nikki."

"Goodnight Steph."

* * *

Nikki returned to her hotel room and took a long, hot shower. Afterwards she felt much better and decided not to wait any longer to call Vince. She was a little surprised that he had not called her already but she guessed that he knew she would call when she could.

He answered after only one ring, "Hi Nikki, how are you?"

It occurred to Nikki that Vince would not have been aware of the original script for Raw now that Stephanie was in charge of that side of the company and he had not realised that anything out of the ordinary had happened. "I'm fine Vince but we need to talk."

He made a lame joke, "We are talking Nikki."

"I'm serious Vince, please listen." She explained everything that had happened and the idea she had put together. Before he could complain about being back on the road again she said, "I know you're not keen on being on the road twice a week but look on the bright side, we'll be together on those nights!"

Vince thought for a few moments before coming to a decision, "You're right. It's not nice being away from you. I guess I could manage one more run. We tried something similar to this before but we had to drop it when everything happened with Steph." He paused again, "Have you spoken to her about this yet?"

Nikki babbled enthusiastically, "Yes and she said she loves it. She thinks it could make a really good angle."

Vince sighed, "Well after today I think my daughter's opinion carries more weight than mine anyway, so if she likes it..."

Nikki cut in, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Huh?"

Nikki tried not to sound impatient, "You just said that Steph's opinion carries more weight than yours, what happened in that boardroom?"

His voice now sounded distant, "I'm not sure, I think she took control of the company."

Nikki's eyes widened, "This is a story I have to hear!"

Vince suddenly sounded tired, "Not tonight Nikki, we'll talk about it tomorrow."

Nikki replied sweetly, "Ok cuddle bear, you get some sleep and I'll see you tomorrow. I miss you."

He laughed, "What did you just call me?"

"You heard me. Goodnight, I love you." She ended the call with a satisfied smile. Everything was working out perfectly. She sat on the bed thinking that whatever had gone on in the boardroom was going to make an interesting story the next day. She could not wait to hear it.


	31. TV-14

By the time Nikki and Paul arrived back at WWE headquarters the next day it was lunch time. Paul headed off to find his wife so Nikki went to Vince's office. When she got there she found him talking to his secretary at her desk. When he saw Nikki his face lit up with a smile and he walked over and hugged her, "Hi Nikki, I missed you."

They kissed and Nikki purred, "I missed you too cuddle bear."

He laughed, "Why do you call me that?"

Nikki noticed a disapproving look on the face of Vince's secretary. She whispered to Vince, "Let's go into your office away from that miserable old bitch."

He grinned and they walked into his office. As Nikki closed the door she moaned, "She doesn't approve of us does she?"

Vince sat down behind his desk, "Do you care?"

Nikki sat on the edge of the desk in front of him, "No."

"Neither do I. We're happy and Shane and Steph are pleased for us, that's all that matters to me."

"Vince, you do realise that I've never met your son, right?"

Vince's eyes widened a little, "My god, you're right. We should do something this weekend. Maybe we could get Steph and Paul to come over too with the girls."

"I've never met Steph's kids either. Does Shane have any?"

He smiled, "Yeah, three boys."

"It would be great to meet everyone. Oh, Christ."

"What's wrong?"

"I'm Grandma Nikki."

They both laughed at that realisation and then Vince quipped, "That's going to take some explaining."

Nikki could not resist any longer, "Vince, tell me what happened yesterday? And tell me what was going on with Steph?"

He leaned back in his chair with a sigh, "What's going on with Steph? How much I would pay someone for an answer to that question."

"What does that mean?"

"She's got this whole TNA thing in her head now, I think she's obsessing on it too much. I mean, obviously we all want to get back on top again but she's, I can't explain. It's like it's personal for her for some reason."

Nikki had been thinking about this herself and decided to put a thought out there, "I thought about this too. Do you think she's going so strong into this because of what happened with John?"

Once again Vince's eyes narrowed a little, clearly he had not considered that, "What do you mean?"

"Just that maybe she's still struggling with what happened and she's trying to focus on this instead. I mean, I went to see her yesterday morning and it was obvious that she was boiling."

He snorted, "You should have been in the boardroom."

Nikki could not help a laugh, "No! Don't tell me she went off in the board meeting?"

"Oh yes. She yelled at everyone about our ratings not being good enough and us not doing enough to get back on top. I've never seen anything like it. I mean, swearing in a board meeting."

Nikki was incredulous, "She swore?"

Vince clearly did not find it amusing, "Apparently she's 'not here to fuck around'."

Nikki got up from the edge of the desk and took a seat in one of the chairs in front of it to be more comfortable, "I'm surprised they didn't ask her to leave or something?"

He grunted, "They seemed to be impressed if anything, at least most of them did."

"Really, so what happened? I mean why did the meeting go on for so long?"

Vince shifted in his chair as if the memory was uncomfortable for him, "To cut a long story short she eventually got the majority of the board to back her idea of making a big change to get us back on top of TNA."

Nikki asked eagerly, "What idea?"

She could tell by Vince's tone that he had not been one of the people who had agreed with the decision, "The PG era is over. We're going back to TV-14"

Nikki took a moment to take that huge news in, "Wow. Uh, I thought we made a lot of money from the kids? Like, merchandise?"

"We do. But she forced through the idea that this way we can write better storylines and get higher ratings and they went for it. Basically she made a power play on me and the board backed her. Now that the board is behind her she pretty much runs this place."

She realised he was struggling with this so she went over to him and sat sideways across his lap, "But you're still Chairman."

"That means nothing, she's CEO and every major decision must go through the board anyway. If they back Steph there's nothing I can do."

Nikki suddenly began to worry, "You're not going to end up fighting each other on this are you? Things were just starting to go so well with me moving in with you and Steph being so good to me."

He sighed, "No I'm not going to let that happen. To be honest I was thinking last night that I might retire and let her get on with it."

Nikki jumped up, "Retire? Vince, are you sure? This place means so much to you. At least give it some time to see how things pan out huh?"

He shook his head, "This place isn't everything to me, not any more. My family is more important. All I want is to be with you and get along with my kids." He stood and Nikki hugged him, "You should talk to Steph about this, I can't imagine that this is what she wants. Also you should try and speak to her about what I said about John. I don't think she's over that as she claims and the trial can't be far away now?"

"I'll try to get everyone to come over at the weekend as I said and I'll try to talk with her then."

Nikki kissed him and tried to change the subject as this was clearly uncomfortable for him, "Have you eaten yet? I'm so hungry!"

He put an arm around her and started to walk towards the door, "No, let's go out. I'm sick of this office."


	32. Collapse

Nikki could not stop herself thinking about what she had said to Vince about Stephanie and the more she thought about it she became more convinced that she was right. She could not wait until the weekend to talk to her about it. She waited until it was nearly time to leave and then walked into Stephanie's office and closed the door. Stephanie was clearing some documents from her desk as she prepared to head home. She looked up as she heard the door close, "Can we talk tomorrow Nikki? I'm just leaving."

Nikki had not thought through how she was going to approach the subject so she just blurted out, "I figured out what's going on with you. You're struggling with the John thing again."

Stephanie looked down at her desk as Nikki spoke and Nikki immediately knew that she was right. Stephanie insisted, "We're not having this conversation Nikki."

Nikki insisted even more firmly, "I don't know why but you're hiding this from Paul and you're hiding this from Vince. You have to talk to someone Steph. I'm here for you. If you want this to stay between us that's fine but you need to talk to me."

Suddenly and unexpectedly Stephanie began to cry softly. Nikki hurried across the room and hugged her, "Steph what is it? What's happened?"

Stephanie did not reply so Nikki just held her until it was over, "Steph you can tell me. I'm here for you whatever it is."

Stephanie finally managed to speak, "I got a call Thursday morning, they think the trial will collapse."

Nikki was stunned, "What? Why?"

Nikki helped Stephanie to sit down and then sat next to her as Stephanie spoke. She sounded distraught, "Basically they said that the only real evidence they had against John was my statement and no one else actually witnessed anything. They said that as I was having psychological issues as the time in addition to the fact that I admitted that I lied in my original statement will mean that my testimony won't be useable. Therefore there's no case, therefore John can walk."

Nikki was lost, "Wait, go back. You lied?"

Stephanie looked down at the floor and mumbled, "Yes. I tried to make it seem worse than it was. It was incredibly stupid but I wasn't thinking clearly for obvious reasons."

Nikki could not believe what she was hearing, "Oh god. So John walks free? When does that happen?"

Stephanie began to cry again, "There's some kind of pre-trial meeting they have to go through next week, that's when it will get thrown out so he'll get out soon after that I guess."

"My god. Why haven't you told Paul?"

"I don't know, I just couldn't talk about it. I know I need to tell him."

Nikki took her hand, "We'll do it together if that will help?"

"You'd do that for me?"

"Of course, I told you already that I'm here for you. You'll only make it worse for yourself if you try and deal with it alone."

Stephanie started sobbing, "What if he comes after me again when he gets out?"

Nikki squeezed her hand tightly, "That's not going to happen Steph. He knows that if he goes near you again he'll go to jail for certain."

"That won't matter if he's killed me by that point."

Nikki pleaded, "Please Steph will you listen? Nobody is going to get killed."

Stephanie was still sobbing so Nikki lifted her chin and held it so that Stephanie had to look at her, "Listen to me. Nobody is going to get killed. Calm down.

Stephanie tried to control herself, "How can you be sure?"

"Try to stop crying and I'll tell you."

Nikki waited while Stephanie got herself under control and wiped her eyes then she explained, "You remember when we talked that night in the hotel room I told you I visited John?"

"Yes."

"I talked with him for a long time Steph and trust me he doesn't want to hurt you anymore. He's on meds too, probably similar ones to yours. All he wants is to put this all behind him."

Stephanie looked stunned, "He told you that?"

Nikki nodded, "Yes. At the time it was pissing me of because, well, we didn't exactly like each other at the time and you were all he would talk about. He wanted me to ask you to visit him."

"He wants me to visit him in jail?" Stephanie was dumbfounded by the suggestion.

Nikki took her hand again, "That's what he asked, but they won't let you visit him. That will never happen. I'll go visit him for you."

"You would do that for me?"

Nikki smiled, "You already asked me that a few minutes ago. I told you Steph, I'm here for you on this. I'll go visit him and tell him you want the same thing as he does, an end to this."

Stephanie seemed incredibly relieved, "That would mean the world to me. I worry more for the girls than I do for myself. Do you really think he will go for it?"

"Steph I keep telling you, this is what he told me he wants too." Nikki thought for a moment, "Would you consider meeting him if, when he's released?"

Stephanie did not hesitate, "If that's what it takes to end this."

Nikki stood and offered a hug which Stephanie accepted, "Thank you Nikki. You don't know how much weight you've lifted from my mind tonight."

Nikki released the hug, "I'm glad to help. Uh... Steph?"

"Yes?"

Nikki suddenly looked nervous, "Vince was talking about the whole family getting together this weekend. I've never met Shane or his wife or their kids. We hoped maybe you and Paul would come over with the girls? Maybe they can meet Grandma Nikki?"

Stephanie giggled, "Grandma Nikki huh? I think the girls will like that. We'll definitely come over."

Nikki beamed, "That's great!"

Stephanie picked up her jacket and put it on, "Let's go home Nikki, I'm sick of this office."

"That's the second time I've heard that today."

As Stephanie opened the door she asked, "What was that?"

"Nothing, let's go."


	33. You're All I Have

Nikki had offered to drive Stephanie home as she had been so upset in the office. There was a relaxed silence in the car until Nikki said, "I'll make a call tomorrow, I'll try and go visit John Friday afternoon after we fly back from Smackdown, if I can have time out of the office?"

Stephanie looked at her, "Of course. I was just thinking. Can we not talk to Paul or my dad about this until the weekend? I mean, we'll know a lot more by then anyway."

"Whatever you want Steph. I'm really looking forward to meeting the rest of the family. I don't think I have much of one myself anymore."

Stephanie's eyes narrowed a little, "What do you mean?"

Nikki sighed, "Brie still hasn't called me. I haven't talked with her since that night when I suspended her. My parents haven't called me since then either."

Surprise was evident in Stephanie's reply, "Your parents stop talking to you because you have a disagreement with your sister?"

"Please, Brie is the golden girl. She's probably told them all kinds of things about what a bitch I've turned into now that I'm with a rich old man. I have no doubt she's turned them against me."

Stephanie mumbled, "I should have handled this differently. If I hadn't made you deal with her this wouldn't be happening. I should have done it myself."

Nikki wanted to make it clear to Stephanie that she was not to blame, "Steph this was always going to happen and it's not your fault. Brie is just a jealous little bitch. Hey, maybe I'm wrong anyway. I'll call her tonight. Maybe things will be okay."

Stephanie gave a reassuring smile but she was not convinced.

* * *

Later that evening Nikki still had not managed to make herself call her sister. She was sitting on the couch with Vince. She had considered telling him about the problem but decided to wait until she had spoken to Brie. Vince's phone rang and he leaned forward and picked it up from the table, "Sorry sweetheart it's Shane, I should take this. He's probably calling to arrange this weekend."

Nikki smiled, "Go ahead, I have a call to make anyway." As Vince began chatting Nikki left the room and pulled up Brie's number on her phone. She hesitated for a moment before she pressed the call button.

After a few rings Brie answered, "Hello?"

"Brie, it's Nikki."

"I know, listen I know I was supposed to call and apologise to you so speaking professionally I'd like to say I'm sorry for my attitude to you at work and I will make sure it doesn't happen again. I need this job."

Nikki had picked up on something that worried her, "Thanks Brie but what do you mean 'speaking professionally'?"

Brie's voice seemed cold, "Exactly what I said. You're my boss and I apologise to you for my attitude."

Nikki felt herself getting frustrated already, "Please don't play games Brie, what exactly are you trying to tell me?"

"You mean you want to speak personally?"

Nikki tried to be patient, "Yes Brie, I'd like a personal conversation with my sister."

Brie's voice suddenly changed and sounded very cold, "Fine, you want personal? Don't call me outside of work hours again. You're nothing to me Nikki. You're my boss and nothing else, do you understand me?"

Nikki's heart sank, "Don't do this Brie, please."

Brie hissed, "You did this Nikki. I told you not to get close to Vince McMahon and I definitely told you not to get close to that fucking bitch daughter of his. You've changed Nikki and I told you it would happen"

Nikki felt her anger building up but she tried to contain it, "So you want to run my life Brie? If I make a decision you don't like then you want nothing to do with me?"

Brie laughed sarcastically, "Please. You showed where your loyalties are. Before you started fucking Vince you hated that bitch as much as I do and now she's like a sister to you. Hey, he can fuck you, right? I mean, he is capable?"

That was too much for Nikki, "Shut the hell up Brie, you're going way too far."

Brie continued her angry rant, "No, you shut up. The first night you worked with that vicious bitch you began to change. Within two weeks you're telling your own sister that you're going to fire her? We both know where this is going."

"You can't blame Steph for that Brie. Your attitude was disgusting, we've just been over this."

Brie spat, "Okay, you tell me that before you started your vile little relationship that you didn't hate her as much as I do? Tell me that Nicole!"

Nikki sighed, "You know I did Brie but it's not like that. You only know her as the boss, I only knew her as the boss. That's not what she's like outside of work. Wait, you're actually telling me that you don't want me in your life because I don't hate Stephanie McMahon anymore?"

Brie laughed derisively again, "No Nicole, I'm telling you I don't want you in my life because the whole thing is sick. You're with a sixty nine year old man for fuck's sake. Not only that you're best friends with the most repulsive bitch I've ever encountered in my life. Just the thought of it makes me sick. You've made a choice, you'd rather be a part of that family than this one."

Nikki yelled, "I've never said that!"

Brie growled, "You didn't have to. Don't call me again Nikki. Don't call mom and dad either, I've told them all about what a bitch you've turned into and the sick 'relationship' you're in and how you've treated me. They're as disgusted as I am."

Nikki began to cry but she did not want Brie to know that so she quickly yelled, "Fuck you Brie, I don't need you. I have a family here." She ended the call.

She was feeling dazed as she wandered back into the living room. Vince asked, "Nikki, what's wrong? Who are you yelling at?"

She sat next to him and tried desperately not to cry, "My sister. I don't want to talk about it. Let's just say that you are all I have in the world now."

Vince put his arms around her as she started to cry, "What are you talking about?"

"My family want nothing to do with me basically because Brie is a jealous little bitch."

"That's insane."

She held onto him tightly as her tears made his shoulder wet, "At least I have you."

He shifted so that she had to lift her head from his shoulder. As she did so he looked into her eyes, "That's right and you have the rest of my family. You have Steph and Paul and you have Shane and Marissa too."

"I've never even met them Vince, what if they don't like me?"

He kissed her and it made her feel a little better, "Of course they'll like you sweetheart. You're an amazing and beautiful woman, there's nothing about you not to like."

She rested her head on him again put an arm across his stomach, "Thank you Vince, I love you."

"I love you too. Nikki, there are many people that are keen to say bad things about the McMahon family but one thing you can bet on is that we are always there for each other."

Nikki closed her eyes and tried to relax, "I know that Vince and from this point forward I'm here for all of you guys, no matter what."


	34. Nikki And I Are Together

Michael Cole's voice opened the show as Smackdown went on air, "Hello everyone and welcome to Thursday night Smackdown. I'm Michael Cole and alongside me is John Bradshaw Layfield. John I can't wait to find out what the reaction will be to what happened in the main event Monday night"

Lillian Garcia's ring announcement cut in before JBL could reply, "Please welcome the CEO of WWE, Stephanie McMahon."

As there was a moderate cheer from the crowd JBL chirped excitedly, "I don't think you're going to have to wait long to find out Michael."

"I think you're right, here comes the boss."

"But is she the boss?" JBL asked mischievously, "You heard what happened Monday night, Mr. McMahon changed the main event and it nearly cost Daniel Bryan his title opportunity. If it hadn't been for Randy Orton..."

Cole cut him off, "You know Stephanie is in charge John, Mr. McMahon had no business doing what he did on Monday night and you know Stephanie is one of Daniel Bryan's biggest supporters in the WWE."

They stopped arguing as Stephanie was in the ring and ready to speak. She waited for a small 'Steph!' chant to finish before she began, "A lot of you will be wanting to know what happened in my absence on Monday night. Quite frankly I want the same explanation as you do. Before I got diverted to the back end of nowhere due to a problem with the jet I was flying on my understanding was that the main event of Raw was going to be the WWE champion Brock Lesnar..."

She was interrupted by thunderous boos from the crowd. After a moment she continued, "Defending his title against Daniel Bryan."

A 'Yes!' chant erupted throughout the building. Stephanie again waited for it to die down before she continued, "But that isn't what happened. What happened is that Brock Lesnar attacked Daniel Bryan from behind like a coward and injured his knee, leaving Daniel needing hospitalisation."

The crowd booed again. Stephanie continued, "Now here's the thing I don't understand. Instead of someone calling me and asking what should be done an announcement was made that 'Mr. McMahon' has decided that if Daniel Bryan forfeits the match then he will lose his opportunity for the WWE title." More boos could be heard at the mention of Mr. McMahon and the stipulation he had put on the main event at Raw.

"I know you're here dad as I saw you earlier. I don't know why you chose to ignore me then but you can get out here now and explain why you're interfering in _my_ shows?"

There was a cheer from the crowd as Stephanie spoke aggressively to her dad. There was a pause as everyone waited for Vince's entrance music to start but it did not happen. Stephanie growled, "Come on 'dad' get out here. Now!"

After another pause Vince's music hit and the crowd booed. Vince swaggered down to the ring and took a microphone, "Maybe my hearing isn't what it used to be, did you say _your_ show?"

Stephanie scowled at her father, "You know as well as I do that I'm in charge of both Raw and Smackdown. What the hell are you trying to pull?"

Vince's expression contained an equal amount of distaste, "Maybe I've decided that I don't want to give up control of my company that easily."

Stephanie sneered at him now, "You're a bit late for that 'daddy'."

Vince smirked, "If only you knew what you were talking about. I'm still chairman of this company, that means I have just as much power to make decisions around here as you do."

The crowd booed. Stephanie sounded hurt and confused, "Why are you doing this? We all agreed that I would take charge of the shows. That was only three weeks ago and now you come out here with this?" What's really going on?"

Vince spat, "What's going on? I'll tell you what's going on." He yelled in her face, "You're not my princess anymore!"

Stephanie took a couple of steps back from him and looked even more hurt, "What do you mean?"

Vince sounded like he was enjoying himself now, "Daddy has a new princess now, say hello to your step-mom Stephanie!" He pointed up the entrance ramp as Nikki Bella's music started to play.

Stephanie's eyes widened in horror and her mouth dropped open. Michael Cole yelled, "What is this? There's no way Mr. McMahon and Nikki Bella can be in any kind of relationship!"

JBL sounded pleased, "Yes! We're going to see some fireworks now Michael! Look at Stephanie's face. This will be brilliant."

Nikki climbed into the ring and sauntered past Stephanie with a look of disgust on her face and then she kissed Vince, a long passionate kiss. The crowd booed. When the kiss was over Nikki took Vince's microphone and greeted Stephanie disrespectfully, "Hello Stephanie."

Stephanie looked disgusted, "What the hell is this?"

Vince put his arm around Nikki as she replied, "We're together now Stephanie and we're taking control of this place, whether you like it or not."

Stephanie spat, "Like hell you are."

Nikki grinned, "Watch us."

Stephanie pleaded with Vince, "Daddy?"

Vince took the microphone back from Nikki and yelled at her, "Don't daddy me. Get out of my ring! Now! Get out! I don't need you anymore! Get out of my life, and stay out!"

Stephanie began to cry as she climbed out of the ring and headed up the ramp without looking back. Michael Cole groaned, "This is disgusting. Mr. McMahon makes me sick. How could he speak to his own daughter like that? Look at her John, she's devastated."

"Who cares Michael?" JBL was delighted, "There's your new princess in the ring! There's your new boss! Mr. McMahon and Nikki Bella are together!"


	35. Visitation

As Vince and Nikki walked hand in hand through the curtain to the backstage area Stephanie was waiting for them with a big smile, "I told you dad! That was great." She hugged him and then hugged Nikki, "Congratulations Nikki."

Nikki replied shyly, "Thank you, but it's the writers that made it what it is."

Stephanie laughed, "Nonsense, this was your idea and you take the credit for it."

Nikki smiled at her as Vince said, "I actually realised while we were out there how much I missed it. This will be a great final run for me."

They both looked at him and Stephanie asked, "You're sure? This is definitely your final storyline?"

He put an arm around each of them and led them towards Stephanie's office, "Definitely, and I get to enjoy it with my two favourite ladies."

* * *

Nikki walked into the visitation room and immediately noticed John Cena sitting in the back left corner of the room. She walked over to the table and sat in the cheap plastic chair that was bolted to the floor. She had noticed that he had looked her up and down as she approached, clearly he was surprised at her expensive black suit and dark red blouse. As she sat he spoke, "Hello Nikki, What's all this?" clearly referring to her outfit.

Nikki smiled, "Hi John. Uh... let's say a lot has changed since I last visited."

"What has changed?"

She was still smiling, "You'll not believe this but I'm in a relationship with Vince McMahon."

His expression did not change, "You're right, I don't believe you. So, seriously what's going on?"

"I'm serious John, Vince and I are together. Also I work for Stephanie."

He looked down and his voice sounded distant, "Christ Nikki, what's wrong with you? Why did you come here?"

Nikki decided to be honest, "Steph asked me to."

His disgust was evident, "Steph now is it? Go home Nikki I don't want to hear this, whatever it is."

"Just shut up and listen would you? She asked me to come because she wants the same thing as you do. She's afraid of you John, she's afraid for herself and her kids."

John was incredulous, "She's afraid of me? She tried to kill me!"

Nikki sighed, "Yes John but I believe that was after you abducted her from outside of her own home? Correct me if I'm wrong."

"True, but you didn't see her eyes Nikki. She wanted to kill me for sure. I don't know why she didn't after she did this." He pointed at the scars on his cheek and continued, "People like her can have people disappear Nikki. I've been told the trial may collapse and I'll walk, if that happens I'm dead. I'm convinced of that."

Nikki was confused, "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Who has more money than anyone else you know Nikki? The McMahons. If she wants me gone she can get it done easily, don't kid yourself."

"John are you off your meds? You sound crazy. She's a businesswoman and a mother of three kids. She's not Al Capone. What the hell are you talking about?"

He decided to change the subject, "You said she wants the same thing as I do, so say what you came here to say."

"Exactly that. You want this behind you and so does Steph. She's also been told that the trial will likely collapse and I proposed that when you get out of here that the two of you meet each other."

His eyes widened, "No chance, I'm not going near that crazy bitch."

"John for Christ's sake will you listen to yourself? All you have to do is meet her some place public and clear the air and convince each other that you'll both drop this thing for good." She tried to add a joke, "I'll come too and make sure nobody gets killed."

Unsurprisingly John did not find it amusing, "You think that will be it? I meet her and we tell each other we'll drop it and that will be an end to it? I just don't see it like that."

Nikki gave the only answer she could, "Steph's willing to do it, if you're not then I can't help you."

He thought for almost a minute, "Ok, If I get out of here I'll call you. Same number?"

Nikki nodded, "Same number. Goodbye John." She stood and quickly walked out. When she got back into her car she called Stephanie. As Stephanie answered she got straight to the point, "Hi Nikki, how did it go?"

"He's not convinced you're serious and he's afraid you're going to have him whacked when he gets out but..."

Stephanie laughed, "I'm going to what?"

"He thinks you'll have someone shoot him or something. I don't know what the hell he was talking about to be honest."

"So is he willing to meet or not?"

"As I said he's not convinced about it but he went for it. He's going to call me when he gets out."

Stephanie sounded pleased, "Perfect, thanks Nikki. See you soon." The call ended.


	36. Meet The Family

Nikki was nervous. Today was the day she was going to meet Shane McMahon and his wife Marissa. She was also going to meet Stephanie's three daughters for the first time. She had put on her favourite red dress and after being assured by Vince that she was not over dressed she felt a little better. She wanted to look her best when she met everyone. To make her feel more comfortable Vince had put on suit pants and a blue shirt.

Vince walked up to her as she checked herself in a mirror for a final time, "You look beautiful Nikki, stop panicking."

She turned to him, "You do know we don't have a picture of us together, right? We should have someone take one today."

He kissed her, "If that makes you happy sweetheart. I think I heard a car door slam, someone's here."

Nikki hung back in the hallway as Vince opened the door. Paul walked in first and shared a brief hug with Vince, "Hey Vince." Then he walked towards Nikki and they shared a peck on the cheek, "Nikki, you look great."

Stephanie crashed through the door next carrying a bag of food items in one hand and a bag of kids toys in the other, "I'll get the bags Paul, don't worry about it."

He hurried over, "Sorry honey, I'll take them."

Stephanie turned and spoke through the doorway, "Come on girls, come see Granddad Vince and Grandma Nikki."

Nikki felt strange hearing that, it just did not sound right. It suddenly struck Nikki that she did not know how old Stephanie's kids were. Stephanie held the door open and a beautiful girl who looked to be about seven or eight years old hurried in, "Hi Granddad Vince." She hugged him and then walked over to Nikki. She held her hand out as her mom had taught her, "Hello, my name is Aurora and I'm pleased to meet you."

Nikki's heart melted at that. She took the little hand that was offered and shook it, "Hello Aurora, I'm Nikki. You're going to be like your mom, I can tell." Nikki's attention was diverted to the second child as she padded through the door, she must have been only three or four years old. She padded straight past Vince and attached herself to Nikki's leg, "Grandma Nikki."

Aurora helped out, "This is Vaughn."

Nikki bent down, "Hi Vaughn."

Vince laughed from the end of the hallway, "I think I've lost one granddaughter already."

Stephanie closed the door as the final child walked in. She didn't say anything or go to hug anyone. She stood and pulled on Stephanie's hand, "Mommy..."

Stephanie encouraged, "Go and see Granddad Vince, Murphy."

Again she pulled on Stephanie's hand, "Mommy..."

Stephanie crouched down to her, "What's wrong baby?"

Murphy whispered, "You're naughty mommy."

Stephanie smiled, having no clue what her daughter meant, "Why am I naughty?"

Murphy whispered sternly, "You told a lie. That's bad."

Stephanie whispered, "I don't lie to you baby girl, lies are bad. What lie did I tell you?"

"You said Nikki was Grandma. She's not old enough to be Grandma."

Stephanie somehow managed not to laugh, "You're a clever girl. You're right, Nikki isn't old enough to be your Grandma."

Murphy's face was accusing, "You lied!"

"I didn't lie baby, it's called a secret. Nikki is cheating at being a Grandma but we're not supposed to know. Can we keep it a secret?"

Murphy liked that idea, "Yes we can."

Stephanie beamed, "Good girl."

Vince had walked over, "Is everything okay? Hello Murphy."

Stephanie said, "We can't tell you I'm afraid, can we?"

Murphy laughed, "No. It's a secret." Vince crouched down and hugged her.

Nikki walked over now too, "Hi Murphy."

Murphy looked at Stephanie who gave little nod. Murphy hugged Nikki, "Hi Grandma Nikki."

Paul's voice came from the living room, "Girls, come help me unload all these toys."

As the girls hurried off with Aurora dragging Vince with her Nikki gushed, "Your kids are so beautiful and they're so sweet."

Stephanie smiled, "Thank you, they're my little angels." There was a knock on the door as she said it and Nikki opened it. She saw a handsome man with greying hair, "Shane?"

He gave her a peck on the cheek, "Hi Nikki, great to meet you. Meet my wife Marissa"

He stepped out of the way and Nikki saw an incredibly attractive dark haired woman leading three young boys up the steps to the door. Nikki said, "Hi Marissa."

Marissa smiled, "Hi Nikki. You should meet Declan, Kenyon and Rogan before they get inside and start tearing your house up. Say hi to Nikki boys." Nikki noted there was no mention of Grandma Nikki. Shane and Marissa had obviously approached things differently. She smiled at the boys as they all said hi and charged past her into the house.

Nikki closed the door after Shane and Marissa had walked in and took a deep breath now that the most nervous moments were over. Everyone seemed so nice, she was lucky to be a part of this family.


	37. Making Plans

After a very enjoyable lunch everyone had headed out into the garden and sat around the huge table Vince had out there. The kids were having a great time tearing around the place, playing all kinds of games. The women shared a bottle of wine but there was no alcohol for the men, Paul and Shane had to drive home later and Vince did not like to drink.

Nikki was having the nicest time she could remember, everyone was so friendly and the conversation seemed to flow naturally even though she had only just met Shane and Marissa. When there was break in the conversation Stephanie said, "Actually whilst we are all together there was something me and Nikki wanted to talk to you guys about."

Nikki had not exactly forgotten about it but it had drifted from her mind. She drained her glass of wine as Stephanie continued, "Here's the thing. I got a call a few days ago and, well it seems that the trial against John Cena is going to collapse."

No one said anything. After a long pause Paul said, "Why?"

Stephanie shook her head sadly, "I don't know, some crap about my statement not being useable because of my mental state at the time and the fact that I admitted that... my first statement wasn't one hundred percent accurate. As nobody else actually witnessed anything it's pretty much dead in the water."

Shane was angry, "Wait a minute, are you trying to tell me that cock sucker is going to walk?"

Marissa warned him crossly, "Shane! The kids will hear you."

"Sorry, but you can't be serious?"

Stephanie confirmed, "Sadly I am."

Shane stood up and exploded, "I'll kill the prick!"

Paul stepped in, "Sit down Shane, please. Let Stephanie say what she's trying to say."

Stephanie looked at Nikki, "Actually Nikki could you..."

Nikki nodded, "Of course. Stephanie told me about this the other day and..."

Paul cut her off as he demanded of Stephanie, "You told her before you told me? What are you thinking?"

Nikki spoke before Stephanie could, "Don't get on to her Paul, I forced it out of her to be honest. What I was about to say was I went to visit John yesterday."

Vince nearly yelled, "You what?"

Nikki closed her eyes, "Guys can we do more than one sentence per interruption?" They all mumbled apologies and she continued, "John wants the same thing that everyone here wants, especially Steph. He wants to put this whole mess behind him."

Shane mumbled, "I'll put it behind him, let me visit him and I'll put it behind him."

Marissa growled at him, "Shut up will you, for god's sake."

Nikki continued, "So what we've agreed is that when, if, John gets out he and Steph are going to meet and put their differences aside."

All three men said the same thing at the same time which would have been comical under other circumstances, "The hell you are." They all stared at Stephanie as if expecting that she would provide some kind of counter argument but it was Nikki who continued, "Yes, she is. We're going to meet him somewhere public. That's right, I'm going with her."

Paul shook his head, "No way Steph, you can't go near that guy."

Stephanie pleaded with him and everyone else, "If all he wants to put this behind us is for me to meet him and give him my word that I'll put this behind me then that's what I'm going to do. I'm doing it with or without your support guys but with would be a lot better."

There was silence now as everyone considered it. They all knew that after what Stephanie had just said that she would not change her mind. Eventually Paul asked, "Shane? Vince?" They both nodded and Paul said, "Okay we'll not try to stop you but there's something that I'm not going to take no for an answer on."

Stephanie asked, "What's that?"

"You're going to take a guy from security with you. Nikki you're going to meet John first and the security guy will follow you and sit nearby. Only when you're happy that John isn't going to try anything will you call Steph and tell her to meet with you. Is that understood?"

Stephanie nodded, "Absolutely, I like that. Nikki?"

Nikki nodded. The plan was made.


	38. Direct Intervention

Brie Bella lay on her couch reading a magazine. Her phone began to ring so she sighed and reached over to the table next to her and picked it up. The call was from a cell phone but it was not a number that she had saved. She considered ignoring it, wondering who could be calling from an unknown number on a Saturday evening. Eventually she answered the call and immediately regretted it, "Hello?"

"Brie, this is Stephanie McMahon."

Brie managed to resist saying either of the first two things that came to mind, neither of which were pleasant. She told herself to try to be polite, "Hello Stephanie, what can I do for you?"

There was no particular emotion in the reply but it was still intimidating, "What you can do for me is be in my office at nine am Monday morning."

Brie did not like where she thought this might be heading and she started to get annoyed, "It's Saturday night Stephanie and you're telling me to be in Stamford at nine am Monday? You do know we live in Arizona?"

"There's an invention you may have heard of. They have wings and jet engines, you get onboard and they take you to places. Now what are they called again?"

Brie felt herself about to boil over at Stephanie's sarcasm, "This is about Nikki isn't it? You're going to drag me across the whole country to read me the riot act about my sister."

"I haven't decided what I'm going to do yet. Just be there."

Brie tried again to get out of it, "I'm supposed to be having dinner with my parents tomorrow."

"Then I guess you have a call to make." The call had been ended. Brie slammed her phone down onto the couch then went into the garage where she knew her husband was doing something to their car, "Daniel, I've got to get a flight tomorrow and be in McMahon's office at nine am Monday."

Daniel stopped what he was doing and wiped his greasy hands on his overalls, "What? Why does Vince need you that urgently?"

Brie closed her eyes in frustration, "You think I meant Vince? Really?"

Daniel finally caught on and sighed, "Christ Brie, I told you this would happen if you carried on being a bitch to Nikki."

Brie balled her hands into fists to try and keep her anger under control, "And I told you I'm not being a bitch. She made her choice to be a part of that family and not ours. I'm trying to force her to reconsider."

Daniel was now also getting annoyed, "I'm not having this argument with you again. You know what I think, you need to speak to Nikki and make things right." He turned away from his wife and resumed his work.

Brie stormed off and slammed the door behind her.

* * *

As she walked into Stephanie McMahon's outer office Brie took a quick look at her watch and saw that it was five minutes before nine. This caused a little smile, at least that was one thing Stephanie would not be able to bitch at her about. As she walked over to the Stephanie's secretary's desk she thought that of all the jobs in the world she would probably hate to do that one the most. She realised there was no sense in being rude, this woman had not done anything to Brie and in any case it would get back to Stephanie soon enough, "Good morning, I have an appointment with Stephanie at nine."

Lucy looked up with a smile, "Good morning Brie, Mrs. McMahon will be along shortly. You can take a seat in the office and I'll get some coffee."

Brie forced a smile despite her irritation. Of course Stephanie was not here at nine, she would make Brie wait for her. Brie walked into Stephanie's office and sat down. She looked around the huge office and it annoyed her further that she found it intimidating. She tried to calm herself as she knew that all of this was what Stephanie wanted to happen. She was determined not to let it get under her skin and cause her to say something stupid when Stephanie arrived.

Despite her best efforts Brie felt herself getting angry as she waited. She looked at her watch and saw that it was ten after nine. She was considering going back out to Stephanie's secretary and complaining when she heard the door close behind her. She heard soft footsteps coming across the room towards her and Stephanie's voice, "Sorry to keep you waiting Brie."

Brie resisted the temptation to say, "Bullshit." Instead she managed to force out, "No problem, it's only just past nine."

Stephanie sat down behind the desk and gave a smile that was not replicated in her eyes, "How was your flight?"

Brie wondered what it was about this woman that made her want to slap her every time she spoke but again she managed to sound something close to polite, "I had to fly yesterday but it wasn't too bad."

There was a tap on the door and Lucy walked in with coffee. She placed Stephanie's drink in front of her and got a small nod in response. She asked Brie, "How would you like it?"

Brie smiled, "I'll take it black with no sugar, thank you." Lucy poured and handed Brie her drink and left the office.

As the door closed Stephanie began, "This is a personal meeting Brie, so we can do away with the bullshit."

Brie leapt at the opportunity, "Is that so? Well then let's start with where you get off ordering me to fly across the country on a Sunday and messing up my whole weekend?"

Stephanie smiled sweetly, "I figured you've had a lot of free time recently."

Brie snapped, "This is how this is going to go? You got me in here to taunt me about being suspended?"

Stephanie sneered, "No Brie, we both know why you're here. Nikki told me what you've said to her and that you've talked your parents into breaking contact with her."

Brie spat, "You may be my boss but my family is not your concern."

"You're right and frankly I could care less about your family. The problem that you've got is that Nikki is now my family." Brie noticed how fiercely Stephanie's eyes burned into her own as she continued, "You're walking on thin ice Brie and you're doing it in spiked shoes."

Brie laughed mockingly, "That's what this is? You're threatening me that I need to make things right with Nikki?"

Stephanie leaned forward and growled, "That's where we're at with this? You want me to threaten you? Okay, how about this, If Nikki comes to me or my dad crying about something you've said or done again I'll make sure that you wish she hadn't."

Brie knew she had lost control of the conversation and Stephanie now had the advantage, "So either I speak to Nikki and we clear the air or you're going to do what?"

Stephanie leaned back in her chair, "Why don't you tell me what I'll do?"

Brie looked at her coldly as she considered it. After a few moments she replied, "I know how you think, I know how your mind works. You won't do anything to me directly. You'll probably hold Daniel back in his career and make him miserable."

Stephanie sipped her drink, "Or..."

The slyness in her voice made Brie gulp but he insisted, "You won't fire Daniel. He's one of the top guys here and he's worth too much money to the company."

Stephanie set her cup down on her desk and looked Brie in the eye, "Tell that to John Cena."

Brie was worried now, "Stephanie, Daniel is nothing to do with this."

Stephanie clicked her fingers, "Right, now you don't like it when innocent people get hurt by the fact that we hate each other. Now we're getting somewhere."

Brie knew she had said exactly what Stephanie had wanted her to say and admitted defeat, "Alright you miserable bitch, if you want me to speak to Nikki so badly I will."

Stephanie ignored the insult and replied, "I thought you would." After a pause she continued, "You know this could have all been so different, you could have been part of this family too."

Brie hoped she made her disgust obvious enough, "I can't think of anything I'd rather be less. You're the most repulsive person I've ever met and my sister being around you is a seriously bad idea."

Stephanie gave a small shrug, "Your opinion of me doesn't change my opinion of me. Get out and go find your sister. Lucy can give you directions to her office." As Brie got up Stephanie continued, "One more thing, this conversation gets forgotten as soon as you leave this room. You show up after your suspension with an attitude problem and I'll fire your ass on the spot."

"Yes boss," Brie spat as she stormed out of the office, deliberately leaving the door open. She approached Stephanie's secretary again and took a deep breath to compose herself before speaking, "Can you tell me where my sister's office is please?"

"Sure. Out in the hallway, left side, second closest to the elevator."

"Thanks," Brie stormed out into the hallway.


	39. A Gift

Brie knocked on the door to her sister's office, hoping to get this over with quickly and get out of the building and go home. She heard Nikki yell, "Come in." As she walked in Brie noted the surprised look on her sister's face, "Brie? What are you doing here?"

Brie smiled, "I came to apologise to you, we need to work things out."

She did not get a smile from Nikki as she expected. What she got was, "Can we not bullshit each other on top of everything else Brie?"

Brie was genuinely confused, "What do you mean?"

Nikki sighed, "You may think I'm stupid but I'm not. Firstly you expect me to believe that after you don't call me at all for nearly a month you fly across the country just to see me? And secondly I was just looking out of the window before you knocked on the door and you didn't walk past it which means you didn't come from the left where the elevator is. You came from the right where Vince and Steph's offices are. This doesn't sound like Vince's kind of thing so why don't you tell me what Steph said to make you come in here begging for forgiveness?"

Brie was stunned that Nikki had figured her out so easily and had to take a moment to respond, "Okay so she did bully me into coming here but she's right, we do need to figure things out."

Nikki sounded tired instead of angry, "Just get out Brie. Come back when you have an apology that you mean instead of one you've been told to make. Tell the same to mom and dad. I have a family that care about me and it's not you guys."

As Brie started to respond Nikki instantly cut her off, "Just go Brie."

Brie saw no other option so she left, closing the door quietly behind her. She headed for the elevator hoping that Nikki would tell Stephanie that she had at least tried.

Nikki sat and waited for her sister to leave, wiping a tear from her cheek as she did so. She waited five minutes to be sure that Brie had left the building and then headed for Stephanie's office.

Stephanie had not bothered to get up and close the door since Brie had stormed out so Nikki was able to walk right in. She closed the door behind her and Stephanie looked up. Nikki walked over the the desk and sat down in one of the chairs, "Steph I know what you just did and I know you did it with the best intentions towards me but it really didn't help."

Stephanie did not try to deny it, "What did Brie say to you?"

"She came in with some lame ass apology that she didn't mean and I figured out she'd been in here."

Stephanie shook her head, "I'm sorry Nikki, it's just that being nice to her didn't seem to work so I thought I'd try the opposite extreme."

"Don't apologise, I already said I know why you did it."

Stephanie seemed to struggle to find the next words that she wanted, "I just, after everything you've done for me, well, I wanted to try and thank you somehow or make things better with your family."

"Steph you don't have to thank me for anything."

Stephanie opened a drawer in her desk as she said, "Well I believe that I do." She had a black box in her hand which she placed on the desk in front of Nikki, "So I also got you this."

Nikki picked it up and opened it. Inside she saw a silver necklace with a diamond pendant. She was stunned as although she was no jewellery expert it was obvious that this was worth thousands of dollars at least. She took it out of the box and looked at it, "Stephanie, I don't know what to say. You didn't have to buy me this. It must be worth a fortune."

Stephanie smiled, "Put it on."

Nikki did as she was asked and Stephanie smiled again, "Beautiful. Here, have a look." She handed over a small mirror she had produced from her desk and Nikki used it to check how the necklace looked on her. "Steph I have no words to thank you enough for this."

Stephanie laughed, "This is me thanking you Nikki. If it hadn't been for you I would have spent the rest of my life worrying about John Cena and now thanks to you there's a real chance I can put it behind me."

Nikki nodded determinedly, "I'll make sure of it."


	40. Making Peace

As Nikki boarded the plane to fly out for Raw she saw that Vince and Paul were already on board waiting. As Vince saw her he stood and walked over to her, "Hey sweetheart, we nearly sent out a... what's that?"

Nikki pretended to be confused and asked innocently, "What's what cuddle bear?" She heard Paul laugh loudly in the background and mutter to himself, "Fucking cuddle bear?" as Vince blushed. He said, "That necklace, where did you buy that? You didn't have it this morning."

Nikki looked down at it, "Oh this thing? It was a gift."

He raised an eyebrow, "A gift? Who from? The President?"

Nikki laughed, "Close, your daughter."

Vince beamed at the kind gesture his daughter had made, "Steph bought you that? It's beautiful, I mean you're beautiful."

Paul chirped from the background, "First time ever, I'm going to be sick on a flight before it leaves the ground."

They both jokingly ordered, "Shut up Paul."

Paul asked Nikki, "Is my wife joining us at any point today?"

"She's on a call, she'll be up here in a second I'm sure."

Nikki took her jacket off and took her seat next to Vince as he also sat down. Stephanie walked up to them at that moment and flopped down next to Paul. He said, "What's wrong now?"

Stephanie replied quietly, "They did it. They threw out the trial."

Paul sighed, "God damn it. So Cena walks?"

"Yes, probably by the end of the week."

Nikki spoke next, "We knew this would happen Steph and we know what we're going to do about it okay? So don't worry."

Stephanie replied sadly, "It's easy to say don't worry but unfortunately it's next to impossible to actually do it."

Paul took his wife's hand, "Nikki is right Steph, things will work out once you meet with the son of a bitch. I still can't believe I'm saying that."

Stephanie tried to put it out of her mind, "Who has the script for tonight?"

* * *

Later that day Nikki walked along a hallway at the arena, Stephanie had sent her to find Randy Orton and tell him to get to her office but she was having no luck locating him. She felt her phone vibrating in her pocket. She removed it and looked at who was calling and answered the call, "I don't have time for another twelve rounds with you Brie, I'm working."

Brie's voice sounded different from the morning in Nikki's office, "I'm not calling to argue Nikki. I chatted to Daniel earlier and we talked through what happened this morning."

Nikki just wanted to get off the phone and get on with her work, "That's great Brie but I'm really busy here..."

"Five minutes Nikki, please."

Nikki sat down on a vacant steel chair that was standing nearby, "Fine Brie, five minutes but if you start getting abusive I'm hanging up on you."

"Just listen, Nikki. I talked with Daniel as I said and we ran through everything that was said this morning and Daniel convinced me that Stephanie tried offer me an olive branch at the end of our... meeting. I gave her a bunch of abuse and stormed out but after talking with Daniel I think I made a mistake." She paused as if she wanted Nikki to speak but Nikki did not know where this was going, "I'm listening Brie, please continue."

"Okay, she said something about how things could have been different, that I could have been a part of her family too. It's not only that Nikki, Daniel has been going on to me for weeks about making things right with you. He says it's making me miserable, making him miserable and making you miserable and it needs to stop. We both know it's a bad idea for us to be apart for a long period of time."

Nikki replied evenly, "It's not making me miserable Brie. In fact I'm over it, I'm happy with my family life and my work."

Brie sounded sad now, "So that's it? You don't want to work this out?"

"I didn't say that. You've been a real bitch to me Brie and mom and dad have been way out of line too. It's going to take a lot for me to forgive all of you."

Brie sounded like she had started to cry, "Look I'm sorry Nikki, really I am. Maybe I'm jealous of you or maybe it's just that I hate that bitch Stephanie so much or maybe I'm just scared of them trying to change you but either way I don't know why I've kept up acting like this with you. I'm sorry."

Nikki sighed, "You say you're sorry but you're still doing it."

Brie sounded confused, "Huh?"

"You just called Steph a bitch again. I'm not having that Brie, she's my family now. You don't even know her anyway for god's sake."

Brie sounded stressed, "I'm sorry I, It's just, she drives me crazy, every time I see her..."

Nikki cut in, "You're going to have to get past this Brie if you want to fix things between us. If you can't get along with Steph then you can't get along with me."

Brie asked, "So what are you saying? What do you want from me?"

"You're back at work two weeks from tonight. We'll go into Stephanie's office and we'll talk. If you want this to work out you had better make it good."

Brie sounded nervous, "Okay, if that's what you want I'll do it. I'll let you go back to work. I love you Nikki."

"Goodbye Brie, I'll see you in two weeks." Nikki ended the call.


	41. Someone Has To Go

Nikki finally found Randy Orton and led him back to Stephanie's office. As they walked in Stephanie's irritation at the delay was obvious, "Where did you find him, the airport?"

Orton mumbled, "Sorry boss, I was uh... taking a dump."

Stephanie closed her eyes, "Too much info Randy. Why was I told that you missed the creative meeting this afternoon?"

Orton mumbled again, "Sorry, flights, you know."

Stephanie said sternly, "Don't make a habit of this Randy, I'm watching you and I do mean carefully."

He nodded and left, making sure he closed the door quietly. Stephanie spoke to Nikki, "Taking a dump? What's wrong with these people? Why couldn't he just say he was in the men's room?"

Nikki laughed, "He was probably trying for a reaction. You're not the only one who enjoys doing that to people."

Stephanie response was humourless, "The difference is I doubt people want the kind of reaction I'm in the mood to give."

Nikki realised Stephanie was on her way into one of her bad moods, "Steph calm down. Don't let this thing with John make you mad, soon it will all be over. You should be happy anyway, we're TV-14 today and that was your big idea."

Stephanie did not seem to brighten, "Yeah it was my idea and if ratings don't jump up tonight I'm going to have my dad in my ear about that too."

Nikki tried something she had not tried before with Stephanie, "Will you stop moaning for god's sake? I'm trying my best here to help you."

Stephanie seemed a little surprised, "Excuse me?"

"I said stop moaning. It's not good for you and it's not good for me. I've already said this thing with John will be behind you soon and things are going well here so just get a hold of yourself for god's sake."

Stephanie sulked and said without thinking, "What are you, my mother?"

Nikki burst out laughing, "Yes I am, damn it!"

Stephanie's tried not to laugh but she only managed to last a few seconds. As Vince walked in they were both laughing loudly. He grinned and asked, "What cheered you up so quickly? You've been sulking all afternoon."

Stephanie grinned, "It's Nikki, she always says the right thing."

Vince gave a dry laugh, "I'm going to change your job description Nikki, you can follow my daughter around and fix her constant mood swings."

Stephanie pouted and Nikki replied with a grin, "You couldn't pay me enough to do that job."

Vince got down to business, "You've both got your lines sorted?"

Nikki nodded and Stephanie said testily, "Yes dad, we know how to do our jobs."

Vince pointed, "Nikki, she's off again. Go to work."

Stephanie growled, "Will you get off my back?"

Vince laughed, "I can get reactions too. Remember that next time you crash into my office intent on pushing my buttons."

Nikki could not help laughing at Vince getting one over on his daughter for a change, "He did get you there Steph, this means war."

Vince cleared his throat now, "Right, let's get serious. We're out there first up so let's run through this again shall we?"

Nikki and Stephanie picked up their scripts and began.

* * *

As Raw went on air Mr. McMahon's music filled the arena as did a chorus of boos from the crowd. Michael Cole announced, "Welcome to Monday Night Raw everybody. Michael Cole here alongside Jerry The King Lawler and John Bradshaw Layfield."

JBL spoke next, "Here comes the power couple of the WWE, Michael. It's Mr. McMahon and Nikki Bella."

Cole whined, "These two people make me sick. The way they treated Stephanie last week was disgusting."

King agreed, "I'm with Michael on this, I watched Smackdown and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Stephanie has done a great job since she took charge and this is what she gets, a knife in the back from her own father."

Mr. McMahon held the ropes open for Nikki and after she had entered the ring the two shared a kiss which caused more boos from the crowd. Nikki handed Vince a microphone with a big smile and he began to address the audience, "Thank you for that especially warm reception." More boos came from the crowd. Vince continued, "How beautiful does Nikki look tonight?" Yet more boos rained down as Nikki bowed slightly. Vince began to speak again but was cut off by a chant that hadn't been heard for a long time in WWE. Obviously the TV-14 thing has kicked in already Vince thought as he heard a large number of the audience chanting, "Slut!" at Nikki.

It was not in the script but Nikki snatched Vince's microphone and yelled, "You people are downright rude!" Yet another even louder volley of boos. Vince was pleased with how much hate Nikki was drawing already. He knew the better the reaction, the better the ratings.

Vince spent a couple of minutes making cheap jokes at the expense of the crowd and the city that they were in eventually saying, "What I'm basically telling you is that you are all failures." As the crowd booed again he continued, "But at least you can be happy about one thing. Not one of you out there is a big a failure as my daughter." The crowd booed again but Vince was in full flow now, "Ever since she has taken over around here things have been a disaster. That's why me and the princess here decided to take matters into our own hands. We came down to this very ring last Thursday night and we kicked Stephanie out of it and out of _my_ building too! You'll probably never see Stephanie again."

As the crowd started to boo yet again Stephanie's voice interrupted, "I wouldn't make a bet on that 'dad'." She walked out onto the stage and the crowd cheered. Stephanie was surprised by how loud the reaction was, the fans were really buying Nikki's storyline. She continued, "I've done a lot of thinking these last few days and I've arrived at the conclusion that 'dad', one of us has to go and go for good."

There was a cheer and a "Steph!" chant quickly spread through the arena. Nikki took Vince's microphone again and went off the script again, "It seems the fans made the choice for you, they want you to go Steph, so go on, get out!"

The crowd booed and Stephanie countered, "Ah, Nikki. What was it you called her dad? Your princess?"

Nikki replied, "Yes! I'm his princess now not you!"

"If a 'king' is in a relationship with a woman that makes her a queen not a princess you stupid bitch!" The crowd went wild. Stephanie continued to tear into Nikki, "You stand there in your little suit thinking you impress somebody, I think you look like a two dollar slut!"

A "Slut!" chant thundered throughout the arena again. Stephanie continued, "Anyway 'dad' what I was trying to say before your rent-a-girlfriend interrupted me was that I propose a match at Survivor Series, I'll give you enough time to get your past it ass in shape, we put it all on the line. Winner take all 'dad', you and me in a no disqualification match. One of us wins and one of us leaves with nothing. If you've got the balls?"

There was a frantic discussion in the ring between Vince and Nikki with neither of them using a microphone. Stephanie cut in, "Of course, I should have asked you Nikki, you probably make all the decisions for him now, right?"

Vince eventually spoke, "So what you're saying is, you want to wrestle me at Survivor Series in a no disqualification match. The winner controls WWE and the loser is gone for good?"

"Congratulations dad you managed to repeat a simple concept. Yes that's what I said."

Vince took another few seconds to consider, "Okay... Okay you've got your match! After Survivor Series is over, you're out of here!"

"We'll see about that. There's also something else I'd like to draw your attention to whilst I'm out here. Whilst you were out here running your mouth and boring all these people a few minutes ago I happened to look over the match schedule for tonight and I saw a very interesting thing." She held up a piece of paper, "You see what this says is that tonight in one on one competition we will have in one corner a wrestler described as 'two dollar slut', that's you Nikki," she pointed out helpfully as the crowd cheered. "And in the other corner will be... Stephanie McMahon!"

A "Yes!" chant erupted as Nikki began furiously protesting with Vince that this wasn't fair. After a few moments he had managed to calm her down and it was obvious Vince was making some kind of plan with her. Nikki took the microphone and confidently said, "Okay Stephanie, you've got that match too. We'll see..."

Stephanie cut her off, "What we'll see is if 'daddy' still likes you so much after you've had your face reconstructed." The crowd roared and Stephanie continued, "And dad, as you apparently think I'm stupid I'm sure your little plan you just came up with was along the lines of 'Don't worry Nikki, when she starts beating your face in I'll come down and help you.'"

The crowd laughed at Stephanie's impersonation of Vince and she continued, "You're going to have a problem there because I don't think the special referee would like that."

Nikki yelled, "You didn't mention anything about a special referee!"

Stephanie smiled, "Oops. You're right. Don't worry, I think you know they guy..."

Triple H's music played and the crowd went wild. Triple H walked onto the stage and kissed his wife. Stephanie ended the segment with, "Make the most of the next hour 'dad' while there's some of her left!"

Stephanie and Triple H walked through the curtain and Nikki and Vince were shown arguing in the ring as Raw went to commercial.


	42. Released

Vince and Nikki joined Stephanie in her office and were pleased to see that she looked happy. Stephanie greeted them with, "You're good Nikki, everyone hates you."

Nikki sounded hesitant, "Thanks Steph. Uh... guys, I had an idea just now."

Vince put an arm around her, "Don't sound nervous sweetheart, let's hear it."

"Okay, well I was thinking that this whole thing seems to be going down well but the ending is kind of too obvious."

Stephanie asked, "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that everyone knew as soon as you said someone has to go for good that Vince is going to lose and it will be his final TV appearance. What if we didn't do that?"

Nikki saw Stephanie's eyes light up, "You mean have Steph lose? That's brilliant."

Vince cut in, "Wait a minute, if Mr. McMahon wins that means I have to stay on the road even longer. Nikki you know that I don't..."

"I know Vince but think of the ratings. We need unpredictable storylines and matches. No one will see this coming."

Stephanie leant back in her chair, "I like it. I like it a lot. I don't want you to do something you're not comfortable with though dad so it's your call."

"It's not though is it? You run this place now."

Stephanie narrowed her eyes, "It's not going to be like that dad, what's wrong with you?"

Vince looked sad, "It's just that all of this, this TV-14 thing, these storylines, the changes in priorities around here, it's all you. I don't feel like I have any input any more."

Stephanie stood and hugged him, "You gave me this job dad and I'm doing it. Ratings are going up, admittedly not as much as I want but they are. We'll see a jump tonight I'm sure of it. What are you sad about?"

"It's just harder to let go than I thought."

Nikki had not seen Vince like this before and it surprised her, "Come with me cuddle bear, let's get some air."

They left and Stephanie flopped back into her chair, suddenly feeling guilty at how depressed her father seemed to be.

* * *

It was Wednesday afternoon when Nikki got the call. She was in her office completing some boring paperwork, the one part of this job she did not like. Her phone started chirping in her pocket, glad of the distraction she quickly pulled it out and then she saw who was calling, "Hello John."

"Hi Nikki, how are you?"

Nikki felt nervous for a reason she could not identify, "Fine John. You're out then, obviously."

"Yes I am. When can we meet?"

Nikki thought for a moment, "We're out of town for Smackdown tomorrow and we won't get back until lunch time Friday. It will have to be Saturday."

John sounded uncertain, "Uh... don't you need to check with Stephanie?"

"No. I'm in charge of this, not you, not her. I don't trust either of you to keep your cool. Is that understood?"

"All I want is her word that nothing is going to happen to me, no one has to lose their cool."

Nikki had already thought about where the meeting was going to happen. She told him the place and the time and warned, "If we show and you're not already there John, we disappear. Are you clear on that?"

"Got it, I'll be there."

Nikki ended the call and immediately set off for Stephanie's office. Luckily when she got there Stephanie was not in a meeting. Lucy said, "You can go in Miss Bella there's nobody in there with her."

Nikki walked over to her, "I need something from you first."

"Sure, what can I do for you?"

"I want you to go down to the lobby and get them to call everyone from security down there. When they are all there I want you pick the meanest son of a bitch you can see and bring him back up here."

Lucy looked confused, "Uh... what for? What's going on?"

Nikki patted her on the shoulder, "Nothing that you need to worry about, please just do it."

"Right." Lucy stood and hurried out.

Nikki knocked on Stephanie's door and walked in. Before Stephanie could speak Nikki began, "Steph I need you to listen okay?"

Stephanie stopped typing and raised an eyebrow at the serious tone Nikki had used, "I'm listening."

"Right, John just called me. He's out."

Stephanie gulped, "Oh god, what now?"

"Just listen please. I told him we would meet him Saturday at that shopping mall across town. There's a quiet little coffee bar up there on the second floor that will be perfect."

Stephanie interrupted, "Quiet? I thought we wanted this thing in public?"

"It is in public. I said quiet not empty. You want some fan to recognise you and walk over while you're halfway through this thing?"

Stephanie's eyes widened as she had not considered that, "Christ no, definitely not."

"Exactly, trust me I've thought all of this through. You need to dress down as much a possible so that you're not recognisable to anyone but me and whoever the guy is who's about to walk in here."

Stephanie was struggling to follow now, "What guy? What's going on Nikki?"

Nikki was pacing around the room now, the tension was getting to her, "Steph if you weren't interrupting I would be telling you. I just sent Lucy to find the meanest looking meathead she can from the security team and send him up here. He's going to be coming with us."

Stephanie gestured to a chair, "Nikki sit down, you're making me nervous pacing around like that. I want to thank you for thinking all of this through and organising everything."

Nikki sat down and sighed, "I can't say it's been a pleasure. I haven't been getting much sleep these last few nights."

"I'm sorry Nikki, it's not fair that you're struggling with my problems."

Before Nikki could reply there was a knock on the door. Stephanie yelled, "Come in."

Lucy came in followed by a bald man who looked to be in his mid thirties. He was at least six and a half feet tall and built like a tank. Lucy spoke, "Miss Bella this is Tim. Hopefully he's uh... what you were looking for?"

Nikki nodded, "Thank you Lucy, you can go." Lucy left and closed the door. Nikki noticed that Tim looked very nervous to be up on the top floor, let alone standing in front of the boss. She spoke to him, "Tim, my name is Nikki." She offered her hand and he shook it nervously.

Stephanie stood up, "Stephanie McMahon." He shook her hand even more nervously and spoke for the first time, "It's a pleasure to meet you Stephanie. I mean to meet both of you. Uh... what can I do for you?"

Before Nikki could say anything Stephanie asked, "Do you have any plans for Saturday?"

Judging by his face of all the things he had imagined being asked this was one he had not expected, "Sorry, what?"

Stephanie smiled to try and put him at ease, "I'm in need of someone for security for an hour or two on Saturday. Are you available? I'll make sure you're well paid."

He still looked stunned, "Yeah, no I'm not busy. What are we doing? What are you doing I mean?"

Nikki spoke this time, "Tim, take a second and calm down. You don't need to feel nervous in here. Stephanie and I are going to meet with someone on a personal matter. There is a remote possibility that the man we are meeting may act aggressively towards Stephanie, that's why you will be nearby. Do you have a problem with that?"

Tim nodded, "No, I can do that."

Nikki turned to Stephanie, "Write your address down for him. Tim, get to Stephanie's place by eleven on Saturday, we're meeting at twelve."

Stephanie wrote her address down and handed it over, "Thank you Tim, we'll see you on Saturday."

He took the piece of paper and left, glad to be out of there.

As he closed the door Stephanie said, "Mean looking guy, didn't seem to have much going on upstairs though."

Nikki laughed, "We don't need a rocket scientist Steph, we need someone who's able to stop John doing anything to you on the remote chance that he tries."

Stephanie smiled nervously, "You really don't think he's going to do anything do you?"

Nikki shook her head, "I already told you, if anything he's more afraid of you than you are of him."

Stephanie considered for a moment, "Right, that's that crap you said he was ranting about me having someone shoot him or something?"

Nikki laughed dryly, "Yeah, I mean what the hell, right? Wait a minute I know that look, what are you thinking?"

Stephanie did not say anything for a moment, "Just that I can use that. If he's really afraid of me I can use that. The most important thing in any meeting is to be the one who controls the conversation."

Nikki held up her hands, "Wait a minute, that's your plan? To walk in there and threaten him? Are you for real?"

Stephanie smiled, "Not exactly threaten him, not specifically."

Nikki sighed, "Oh god, I hope you know what you're doing."


	43. We're Doing This

Stephanie had felt ill all day Thursday most likely due to stress so Vince had insisted that she did not attend Smackdown and instead she spent the night relaxing with Paul and the girls at home. This meant that Nikki was in charge again but fortunately there were no problems to deal with, unlike the last time. Stephanie's absence was explained by Vince cutting a promo berating her lack of professionalism for failing to show up and claiming she was obviously too embarrassed after losing to Nikki on Raw, conveniently not mentioning that it had taken three people to get the job done.

Friday dragged by with a series of boring meetings in the office which Stephanie struggled to focus on, she just wanted Saturday's meeting to be over already.

* * *

It was just past ten thirty on Saturday morning when there was a knock on Stephanie's front door. She hurried to the door and opened it and Nikki walked in dressed in boots, jeans and an inexpensive jacket, "Hi Steph. Get changed and we can go."

"Hi Nikki, what do you mean get changed?"

Nikki laughed, "What did I tell you? Dress down. Look at me and look at what you're wearing."

Stephanie huffed, "What's wrong with this dress?"

"Nothing, if you're going to work. Get upstairs and change into something like this."

Stephanie stomped upstairs, "Fine. You're the boss, apparently."

Nikki waited impatiently at the bottom of the stairs, wondering where Paul and the girls were. They obviously were not home as the place was silent. Stephanie eventually came back downstairs wearing boots, jeans and a leather jacket, "Do I pass inspection now?"

"One more thing, put your hair in a ponytail like mine. No one will recognise you then I'm sure."

Stephanie sighed and did as she had been asked, "Where is that guy you arranged to be here? What was his name?"

"Tim. I told him to be here by eleven."

Stephanie whined, "What if he doesn't show up. We're done if he lets us down."

"Can we worry about problems if they happen, not before?"

Stephanie picked up her car keys and tossed them to Nikki, "You can drive. Let's wait for him outside, I need the air."

Nikki followed Stephanie outside, "Try and calm down Steph I can tell you're stressing."

"In just over an hour I'm going to be sitting face to face with John Cena. Forgive me for being anxious okay?"

Nikki hugged her, "I'm with you okay? This is going to go a lot better if you keep calm. Remember what you said, you want to control this conversation when we get there. Get a hold of yourself, please."

Stephanie stood in silence for a few minutes before she exploded, "Where the fuck is this asshole? God damn it!"

Nikki growled, "It's not even eleven yet, for the last time calm down!"

Stephanie closed her eyes, "We shouldn't be doing this."

Nikki was genuinely concerned that Stephanie would not be able to keep herself under control, "We don't have to go Steph. If you're serious we'll just give Tim a few bucks when he arrives and we'll stay here."

Stephanie thought for a moment, "No. We're doing this. I'll try and keep myself calm. I'm sorry Nikki."

"Don't apologise, I can't imagine what this is like for you." As she said that a cab pulled up at the end of the driveway and Tim got out.

Nikki spoke to him, "Good morning, I'm glad you had the sense to take a cab. You don't need to come back here with us now."

The only greeting he got from Stephanie was a slight nod of her head, she was lost in her own thoughts. Nikki unlocked the car and got in the driver's seat. Stephanie got in the front with her and Tim got in the back. At least there was room for him back there in Stephanie's large Mercedes.

* * *

As Nikki drove she told Tim what the plan was that she had worked out with Stephanie, "Tim, listen up. You're going to follow me into the coffee bar, you'll be at least three minutes behind so that I've bought a drink and sat down with our guy before you enter. You'll buy a drink and sit nearby where we can make eye contact. Only then will I call Steph to come in and meet me. Hopefully that's all we'll require from you but if I give you the signal you get over to us faster than you've ever moved before. Understood?"

Tim nodded, "Got it. What if something goes down before I get in there?"

"That's not going to happen, if there's any drama it's going to be with Steph not with me."

He shrugged, "If you say so."

As they walked through the shopping mall and approached the elevators Nikki spoke, "Steph you stay down here until I call. Tim you can ride up with me but you know what to do when we're up there. Everyone ready?"

Tim nodded and Stephanie closed her eyes. Nikki gave her a few seconds, "Steph?"

She nodded and Nikki pressed the elevator button. The door on the far right end pinged open and Nikki gave Stephanie's hand a squeeze, "See you in a few minutes."

Nikki and Tim entered the lift and Stephanie was alone.


	44. The Meeting

Suddenly a thought entered Stephanie's head that panicked her. What if John Cena wasn't waiting upstairs where he was supposed to be? What if he had been watching them and had been waiting for an opportunity like this? She looked around and did not see anything that alarmed her but she decided to go and wait somewhere where there were more people around.

On the second floor Nikki walked into the coffee bar and saw John sitting at a table about halfway back. She made eye contact and saw that he immediately recognised her despite her outfit. She bought two drinks and sat down next to John, this way she was also facing the door. He opened with, "What the fuck is this? Where is she?"

Nikki noted that John was clearly very stressed too, "She's nearby John. When I'm happy you're not going to do something crazy I'm going to call her."

As she was saying this Tim walked in and walked right past their table and looked at Nikki. It was all she could do not to say what she was thinking, "Don't look at me you stupid bastard."

John was looking around the place watchfully, as if he expected someone to come at him at any moment. Nikki asked, "What are you going to say when Steph walks in here?"

"What do you think? I'm going to say that as long as she leaves me the hell alone then we'll never see each other again."

Nikki said, "Okay, John I'll call her. Don't try anything stupid or things will go badly for you."

Tim had just sat down at a nearby table where Nikki could see him. She took out her phone as John resumed looking anxiously around the place, "Steph, you can come up now."

She put her phone down on the table as John said, "Oh god, this was a bad idea."

Nikki said, "Relax John, even if this crazy idea of her having you whacked was true, it's not going to happen whilst she's sitting here is it you idiot?"

John had to admit that this made sense and it relaxed him a little. They waited for an uncomfortable few minutes before Stephanie entered. Nikki saw John tense up as she walked over and for a second she thought he was going to go for her but he just sat there.

Stephanie slid into the seat opposite John, "John."

He met her eyes for the first time, "Stephanie."

Stephanie had thought about this moment for days and after what she had said in her office to Nikki a few days before she knew exactly what she wanted to say, "My message to you is simple John. So long as myself, my husband or especially my kids never see or hear from you again there will not need to be further... complications."

Nikki silently drew in a breath at what Stephanie had just said as John turned to her and nearly yelled, "What did I fucking tell you? You heard that, right?"

Stephanie spoke firmly, "Look at me John. Are we ever going to see each other again? Are my family ever going to see you again?"

John looked at her and whilst his eyes were panicked he saw that hers were cold and calm, "No. Definitely not. I can't get far enough away from you, believe me. What do you want me to do? Swear on it? I swear on my dad."

Stephanie couldn't help herself, "How is your dad John?"

He did not react angrily as she had expected, "He's alive, that's what matters. I'm heading down there to visit him tomorrow morning first thing. I'll probably not come back, so you won't have to worry about me."

Stephanie took a drink from her coffee, "Then I think we're done here."

John panicked again, "Wait a minute, you've given me nothing!"

Stephanie asked coldly, "What do you want from me?"

"I want to know nothing is going to happen to me. Not today, not ever."

Stephanie raised an eyebrow, "You want my word on it John? That means something to you? Very well, you have it." She stood to leave but John stopped her by saying, "Stephanie, I'm sorry."

She stopped just as she was about to turn away from the table and looked him in the eye for a few seconds, then with a slight nod of the head she was gone. John was left wondering what he saw in those eyes at that moment. He already knew it would trouble him that he could not figure it out. Was it sorrow, anger, hatred, pity or something else? He was startled from his thoughts by Nikki saying, "Goodbye John." as she left the table and hurried after Stephanie.

Nikki nearly had to jog to catch up with Stephanie as she marched towards the elevators. By the time she did catch up Stephanie was already in the elevator and Nikki only just got in before the doors closed. She asked, "What are you doing?"

"Let's get out of here, fast."

The elevator opened on the ground floor and Stephanie marched out with Nikki trying to keep up, "Steph slow down."

"No, I want out of here now. Just get to the car and drive."

They soon arrived in the parking lot and Nikki had just opened the car and got in when Tim came running over. He yelled, "What the hell?"

Nikki started the engine and Stephanie opened her door, "Take a cab home Tim, you'll be looked after next time you're paid."

He said, "We didn't talk about how much?"

"You're right, we didn't" She disappeared into the car and with a roar of the engine and a screech of the tires they were gone, leaving Tim looking dumbfounded as to what the hell had just happened.

As Nikki drove she glanced over at Stephanie who had not said a word since she got into the car, "Steph are you okay? I mean that went okay, right?"

Eventually Stephanie replied, "I guess. But I still don't think I can not worry about that asshole. You don't have kids Nikki. One day hopefully you will but until you do you just don't understand. I'll still always be afraid for my girls."

Nikki drove on in silence but her knuckles grew white as she gripped the wheel harder. This was the exact thing that she had hoped not to hear.


	45. 06:12

John Cena was awake early on Sunday morning. He took a shower and dressed for cold weather. The air conditioning in his car was not working and it was going to be a seriously cold day. He had not slept well partly due to the anticipation of seeing his father again today, it had been a while since his father had been well enough to visit him in jail. His sleeping problems were also caused by the fact that he could not get yesterday's meeting with Stephanie McMahon out of his head, he had not liked the conversation or the way the meeting had ended.

He was ready to leave. He picked up his phone and his keys and left the apartment. After locking the door he pulled the collar of his jacket up around his neck against the cold and rubbed his hands together as he walked down the steps to the parking lot.

As he approached his car he saw a guy in a black jacket and a baseball cap getting out of a nearby car and walking towards the steps that John had just descended. Thinking nothing of it John put his key into the car door and unlocked it.

As the unknown person walked behind John he produced a silenced pistol from behind his back and fired a single round into the back of John's head.

Contrary to what some people believe a shot to the head does not kill a person instantly. As John Cena lay on the tarmac he knew what had happened. He heard a car door close and he heard it drive away. He saw his own blood flowing across the parking lot as it drained out of him. He thought of his dad and the rest of his family who he would never see again. Finally he thought of the last time he had seen Stephanie McMahon and the look in her eyes. The fucking crazy bitch had actually done it.

John Cena died at twelve minutes after six.


	46. It Was Not Me

It did not take long for detectives to show up at Stephanie's house. Paul had opened the door to them and they explained why they were there. Paul was stunned as he let them into the house and through to the living room where Stephanie, Nikki and Vince were playing with the girls.

Nikki had told Vince that they should spend the day with Stephanie as she was worried about her after the meeting the day before.

Everyone looked at Paul as he walked in with a shocked expression on his face and two men in suits walked in behind him. Paul said, "Girls let's go upstairs please. These men need to speak to your mom."

Stephanie asked, "What is this?"

She did not like the way Paul looked at her as he scooped Vaughn up in his arms and herded the other two protesting children out of the room. Again Stephanie asked, "What is this? Who are you people?"

Nikki got up from the floor where she had been playing with Vaughn and sat next to Vince, resting her head on his shoulder.

One of the new arrivals spoke, "I'm Detective Clarke, this is Detective Anderson. You are Stephanie McMahon, correct?" She nodded, "We need to question you about a murder which took place this morning."

Stephanie's eyes widened as Vince exploded, "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Sir, please remain silent or leave the room. We're here to talk to Stephanie."

Stephanie asked quietly, "What is all this about? What murder? And why would I have anything to do with it?"

"John Cena was found dead with a gunshot to the head this morning near his apartment. I don't need to ask you if you knew the guy, we've read the file."

Stephanie's mouth dropped open and Vince exclaimed, "John's dead? My god. But you can seriously think..."

"Sir, I'm not going to ask you again. If you can't remain silent please leave the room."

Stephanie had now processed the news, "Wait a minute, you can't be suggesting that I shot John?"

The detective replied patiently, "No, we're not suggesting that. We're suggesting you had someone do it for you."

Vince was about to jump up but Nikki dug her nails into his arm and he remained seated. Stephanie had panic in her voice, "No, wait a minute, this wasn't me. I don't know anything about this. My god, how could you even suggest it?"

"It's a logical suggestion Mrs. McMahon, after what has happened between the two of you."

Stephanie spluttered, "Logical? You think this is logical? How can I prove that this wasn't me?"

"Firstly we'll need..."

Stephanie interrupted, "You should know that I met with John yesterday and we put our differences behind us."

This caused the detective to raise his eyebrows, "You met with Mr. Cena?"

Stephanie nodded, "Yes. Myself and Nikki here met him yesterday. What's the name of that place Nikki?"

Nikki told them the name of the place and confirmed that she had also been there when Stephanie met with John. Stephanie said, "John apologised to me as I was leaving. Frankly I considered things between us to be over."

"We can check that out on their CCTV cameras and confirm that you met with him."

Stephanie was finally getting control of herself, "You do that. What else do you want from me? Phone records? Financial records?"

"Yes we'll need all of that and we'll need to take a statement from you and from your sister."

No one bothered to correct him that Nikki was not her sister as he continued, "Can you stop by and do that for me tomorrow?"

Stephanie nodded, "Absolutely, whatever it takes to get me off the list of suspects. You know, I think John was on drugs that day when he... well you know what he did to me. Maybe you should look into that?"

"We'll look into everything Mrs. McMahon you can sure of that." He paused for a few seconds, "I shouldn't tell you this but I read what you went through with this scumbag. I'm good at reading people and frankly I don't like you for this."

His partner sighed, "For Christ's sake you can't say things like that at this stage."

"Well I believe she's telling the truth and I don't want this prick to cause her any more suffering if that is the case."

Nikki Bella watched this exchange in silence, her face expressionless. She also believed Stephanie was telling the truth, she was the only person in the world who knew it for sure.

_END_


	47. Epilogue

_**EPILOGUE**_

Nikki Bella sat on the couch, resting her head on Vince's shoulder. She watched as Stephanie showed the detectives out.

_FLASHBACK_

_Nikki took the cheap cell phone she had just bought from her pocket and keyed in the number she had memorised. The familiar voice answered and she began, "Hi, this is Nikki."_

_The man on the other end of the call thought for a moment as he tried to remember the name, "Nikki? Oh right, Nikki yeah, how are you?"_

"_I don't have time to chat. If I had a situation that needed to be dealt with I thought you may be the guy who would know a guy?"_

_The man's voice grew weary, "What kind of situation are we talking about?"_

_Nikki chose her words carefully, "A situation that I need dealt with permanently."_

"_This situation have a name?"_

_Nikki was impatient, "That depends if you know a guy?"_

"_I do but it won't be cheap."_

_Nikki assured him, "That's not a problem but what might be a problem is that this needs to be done tomorrow morning."_

"_Are you fucking real?"_

_Nikki sighed, "Can it be done or not? I don't care what it costs and the guy will be easy to get to. I know he's leaving his apartment very early tomorrow morning and the place will be deserted at that time of day."_

"_It can be done. I'll call you back and tell you how much."_

_Nikki insisted, "You won't call me back, I'm about to destroy this phone. I'll call you next week and we'll sort something out. Again, I don't care what this costs." She gave him the details of the apartment and its location and a description of the man in question._

"_You do realise if you don't contact me and pay what I ask you'll be the next situation to be dealt with?"_

"_That won't be necessary." She ended the call and dropped the phone into the deep water below the bridge she was standing on._


End file.
